THE   RAILWAYS   OF   GREAT   BRITAIN 


THE   RAILWAYS  OF 
GREAT    BRITAIN 


BY 

LORD    MONKSWELL 
if 

AUTHOR  OF  "FRENCH  RAILWAYS" 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW   YORK 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

31   WEST  TWENTY-THIRD  STREET 

1914 


PRINTED   BY 

WILLIAM   CLOWES  AND  SONS,    LIMITED, 
LONDON  AND   BECCLKS 


PREFACE 

I  HAVE  to  express  my  most  sincere  acknowledg- 
ments to  a  great  many  gentlemen  connected  with 
various  British  railways,  and  with  the  Chemin  de 
fer  du  Nord  in  France,  for  the  help  which  they 
kindly  gave  me,  either  by  showing  me  things 
personally,  or  by  giving  me  facilities  of  different 
kinds,  or  by  supplying  photographs. 

M. 

August,  1913 


39GG55 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    EAST   COAST 

The  recent  formation  of  Railway  Alliances — East  Coast  Route- 
North  Eastern  Railway— Competition — State  Railways- 
Railway  Servants— The  Engines  of  the  Great  Northern  Rail- 
way— Railway  Carriages 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    RAILWAYS   OF   CENTRAL    ENGLAND 

Midland  Railway— The  Engines  of  the  Midland  Railway— Railway 
Geography — Great  Central  Railway — Lancashire  and  York- 
shire Railway — Goods  Wagons — Goods  Station  at  Leeds — 
Train  Control — Toton — Multifarious  activities  of  Railways — 
Standardisation — Rates  and  Fares — Clearing  House — Canals  57 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   WEST   COAST 

The  Engines  of  the  Caledonian  Railway — Speed  of  Passenger 
Trains— Performances  of  the  Engines  of  the  Chemin  de  fer 
du  Nord — Water  Troughs — Compound  Engines — Frequency 
of  Long-Distance  Passenger  Trains — North  Western  Railway 
—Caledonian  Railway — Docks— Coal  Traffic— Glasgow  Cen- 
tral Station — Highland  Railway ,111 


viii  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   RAILWAYS   TO   THE    WEST 

PAGE 

Great  Western  Railway — Railway  Gauges — Great  Western  Engines 
— Water  Softening — Long  Runs — Slip  Carriages — Rail  Motors 
— Permanent  Way — South  Western  Railway — Goods  Station 
at  Nine  Elms — Princetown  Railway — Southampton  Docks — 
Eastleigh  Works — Signals — Engine  Drivers — Single  Line 
Working— Brakes— Tenders 170 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   RAILWAYS   TO   THE   SOUTH   AND   EAST 

Brighton  Railway — Electric  Railway  Working — The  Engines  of 
the  Brighton  Railway — South  Eastern  Railway — Continental 
Services — Railway  Finance — Great  Eastern  Railway — Local 
Taxation — Punctuality — Oil  Fuel— Future  of  Railways  .  .  242 


INDEX ...    297 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING   PACK 

WAVERLEY  STATION,  EDINBURGH       ....     Frontispiece 

THE  FORTH  BRIDGE 4 

KING  EDWARD  BRIDGE,  NEWCASTLE 8 

4-4-2  EXPRESS  ENGINE,  GREAT  NORTHERN  KAILWAY       ...  40 
EAST  COAST  SLEEPING  CARRIAGE       .        .        .        .        .        .        .50 

4-6-0  EXPRESS  ENGINE,  GREAT  CENTRAL  RAILWAY.        ...  70 

TOTON  SIDINGS 90 

0-6-0  GOODS  ENGINE,  MIDLAND  RAILWAY 110 

CALEDONIAN  RAILWAY — 

(1)    4-4-0  EXPRESS  ENGINE 


116 
(2)     SINGLE  ENGINE,  No.  123 

ENGINE  3-1156  ABOUT  TO  LEAVE  THE  GARE  DU  NORD  ON  THE  RUN 

DESCRIBED  IN  THE  TEXT 136 

THE  CONCOURSE,  GLASGOW  CENTRAL  STATION 162 

SIGNALS,  GLASGOW  CENTRAL  STATION 164 

GREAT  WESTERN  RAILWAY — 

(1)  4-6-0,  4-CYLiNDER  EXPRESS  ENGINE 

.    176 

(2)  BROAD  GAUGE  SINGLE 

GREAT  WESTERN  RAILWAY — 

(1)  LATEST  TYPE  OF  PASSENGER  CARRIAGE 

.    180 

(2)  RAIL  MOTOR  AND  TRAILER 

GREAT  WESTERN  RAILWAY,  WATER-SOFTENING  PLANT    .        ,        .  182 

GREAT  WESTERN  RAILWAY,  GORING  WATER  TROUGHS     .        .        .  184 

4-6-2  TANK  ENGINE,  BRIGHTON  RAILWAY 262 

PROFILE  OF  THE  LINE  BETWEEN  VICTORIA  AND  BRIGHTON  264 


RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT 
BRITAIN 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  EAST  COAST 

The  recent  formation  of  Railway  Alliances — East  Coast  Route — 
North  Eastern  Railway — Competition — State  Railways — Railway 
Servants — The  Engines  of  the  Great  Northern  Railway — Railway 
Carriages. 

As  a  result  of  the  seeking  after  economy  which  has 
imposed  itself  of  late  on  the  railways,  a  series  of  alliances 
to  last  for  long  periods  has  been  made  between  the 
different  companies,  which  has  made  impossible  any 
fresh  outburst  of  competition  between  the  partners  in 
the  same  alliance  for  traffic  between  the  same  places. 
So  far  as  the  public  are  concerned  England,  outside 
the  district  of  the  North  Eastern  Railway,  which  is  not 
a  partner  in  any  alliance,  is  already  practically  divided 
up  between  four  *  groups  of  railway  companies,  and 
the  possibilities  of  competition  of  such  kinds  as  have 
up  to  the  present  existed  are  thereby  much  diminished. 

*  There  is  no  definite  alliance  between  the  South  Eastern  and  the 
Brighton  Railway,  but  the  traffic  arrangements  between  them  are 
sufficiently  elaborate  practically  to  constitute  a  tacit  alliance.  The 
other  groups  are  (1)  London  and  North  Western,  Midland,  and  Lanca- 
shire and  Yorkshire ;  (2)  Great  Central,  Great  Eastern,  and  Great 
Northern  ;  (3)  Great  Western  and  London  and  South  Western. 

B 


2          RAILWAYS   OF   GREAT   BRITAIN 

So  far  none  of  the  companies  which  form  the  East 
Coast  and  West  Coast  routes  to  Scotland  has  entered 
into  a  definite  alliance  with  a  company  belonging  to 
the  opposite  group,  and  competition  between  the  two 
routes,  though  it  is  now  held  in  check  by  a  stringent 
agreement,  might  at  any  moment  break  out.  In  any 
case  the  interest  which  each  of  the  companies  concerned 
has  in  maintaining  the  existing  arrangements  is  probably 
great  enough  to  prevent  any  one  of  them  from  taking 
any  step  which  would  lead  to  an  alteration  in  the  routes 
taken  by  the  trains  which  now  leave  the  Great  Northern 
and  the  London  and  North  Western  termini  in  London 
for  Scotland. 

On  the  West  Coast  route  the  territory  of  the  two 
participating  companies  is  sharply  divided  at  Carlisle, 
and  each  company  works  all  the  traffic  over  the  whole  of 
its  own  road,  but  on  the  East  Coast  route  the  division 
of  lines  and  the  working  arrangements  are  of  some 
complication.  For  160  miles  out  of  London  the  line 
belongs  to  the  Great  Northern  Railway  ;  but  it  is  not 
found  convenient  to  stop  all  the  trains  at  a  point  near 
where  the  Great  Northern  Railway  ends  and  the 
North  Eastern  Railway  begins,  so  most  of  the  expresses 
are  hauled  as  far  as  York — 188  miles — by  Great 
Northern  engines.  On  to  Berwick  (335|  miles  from 
London)  the  line  belongs  to  the  North  Eastern,  and 
the  remaining  57i  miles  to  Edinburgh  to  the  North 
British.  But,  instead  of  handing  the  trains  on  to  North 
British  engines  at  Berwick,  the  North  Eastern  engines 
work  the  whole  way  through  to  Edinburgh.  In  the 
130J  miles  hence  to  Aberdeen,  where  the  traffic  is 
worked  by  North  British  engines,  the  Forth  Bridge, 
which  is  the  joint  property  of  four  railway  companies, 


THE   EAST   COAST  3 

is  traversed  ;  further  on  a  section  of  the  line  belongs  to 
the  North  British  and  Caledonian  Railways  jointly, 
and  the  last  38j  miles  from  Kinnaber  Junction  are  run 
over  the  line  of  the  Caledonian.  There  does  not  on  the 
face  of  it  seem  to  be  much  reason  why  North  Eastern 
engines  should  run  the  East  Coast  trains,  including 
those  which  stop  at  Berwick,  over  the  North  British 
Railway  between  Edinburgh  and  Berwick,  but  the 
North  Eastern  appears  to  like  sending  its  engines  to 
Edinburgh,  and  at  one  time  even  had  considerable 
litigation  with  the  North  British  in  order  to  endeavour 
to  secure  the  right  to  continue  doing  so,  which  the  latter 
company  had  refused  any  longer  to  recognise.  During 
this  period  the  usually  slow-running  North  British 
engines  were  suddenly  called  upon  to  bestir  themselves 
in  a  way  almost  unknown  upon  that  railway  where, 
on  the  other  sections,  the  natural  obstacles  are  so 
numerous  and  so  great.  The  North  British  found 
itself  obliged,  in  order  to  keep  time  with  one  or  two 
trains,  which  otherwise  would  not  have  stopped  at 
Berwick,  to  cover  the  57i  miles  thence  to  Edinburgh 
in  about  an  hour.  The  road  is  an  easy  one  ;  for  most 
of  the  first  16  miles,  it  is  true,  the  line  rises  at  about 
1  in  200,  but  after  this  there  are  no  difficulties  worth 
mentioning.  The  North  British  Railway,  being  in  a 
sort  of  way  bound  in  honour  to  lose  no  time  on  this 
run,  generally,  if  not  always,  used  two  engines,  and 
had  no  difficulty  in  keeping  time  under  all  conditions. 
I  travelled  one  night  by  the  11.30  from  King's  Cross 
while  this  system  of  working  was  in  force.  The  North 
Eastern  saved  several  minutes  on  the  run  from  New- 
castle to  Berwick,  where  we  stayed  7  minutes  ;  then, 
starting  off  again  from  Berwick,  behind  two  North 


4  RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

British  6  ft.  6  in.  bogie  engines,  we  reached  Edinburgh 
in  59  minutes — well  before  time.  The  whole  run  from 
Newcastle,  Berwick  stop  and  all,  took  just  the  same 
time  as  the  fastest  non-stop  run  between  the  two 
points  takes  to-day.  And  this  was  in  1897. 

Before  the  Tay  and  Forth  Bridges,  and  particularly 
the  latter,  were  built,  the  North  British  was  a  rather 
scattered  railway  ;  but,  now  that  these  bridges  give 
direct  access  to  Perth  and  Aberdeen,  the  system 
radiates  most  conveniently  from  its  centre  in  Edinburgh, 
whence  two  long  arms  stretch  north  and  south  to 
Aberdeen  and  Carlisle,  and  two  shorter  arms  east  and 
west  to  Berwick  and  Glasgow.  With  the  extra  traffic 
brought  by  the  Forth  Bridge  the  already  conspicuously 
inadequate  accommodation  in  Edinburgh  became  more 
glaringly  insufficient.  Waverley  Station  in  a  press  of 
traffic  had  for  years,  according  to  everyone  who  has  ever 
written  on  the  subject,  been  the  place  of  all  others 
where  the  nearest  approach  could  be  found  to  complete 
pandemonium.  My  own  acquaintance  with  the  old 
station  was  of  the  slightest,  but  the  hideous  incon- 
venience of  the  place  could  not  fail  to  strike  the  most 
casual  observer.  This  state  of  affairs  at  the  very  heart 
and  centre  of  the  system  made  the  North  British  trains 
a  by-word  for  unpunctuality,  and  it  became  necessary 
to  remedy  matters,  however  great  the  cost.  Any  one 
going  to  Waverley  now,  and  having  in  mind  what 
things  used  to  be  like,  will  give  the  North  British  all 
the  praise  it  deserves  for  the  admirable  manner  in 
which,  with  all  the  difficulties  to  face,  which  are  in- 
separable from  rebuilding  operations  on  a  very  large 
scale,  in  the  centre  of  a  busy  city,  it  has  evolved  order 
out  of  chaos,  and  constructed  a  station  really  worthy 


THE   EAST   COAST  5 

of  the  importance  of  its  position.  Even  now,  however, 
at  really  busy  times  it  is  not  always  quite  so  easy  as  is 
desirable  to  ascertain  at  which  platform  some  particular 
train  may  be  found. 

The  opening  of  the  Forth  and  Tay  Bridges  and  the 
rebuilding  of  Waverley  Station  were  steps  which  could 
not  fail  to  produce  immediately  satisfactory  effects. 
The  other  great  new  enterprise  of  the  North  British 
Railway — the  construction,  technically  not  by  the 
North  British  itself,  but  by  a  company  in  close  alliance 
with  it,  of  the  West  Highland  Railway — was  of  a  much 
more  speculative  character.  The  construction  of  the 
West  Highland  Line  seems  to  have  been  prompted  by 
a  desire  to  enter  country  which  had,  up  to  that  time, 
been  regarded  more  or  less  as  a  preserve  of  the  Cale- 
donian, if  such  a  term  can  be  applied  to  country  so 
sparsely  populated.  The  Caledonian  had  its  Callander 
and  Oban  line  connecting  the  West  Coast  with  the 
populous  central  district  of  Scotland.  It  is  improbable 
that  the  Callander  and  Oban  has  ever  been  a  very 
profitable  line.  To  push  another  railway  into  this 
inhospitable,  if  beautiful,  district  was  a  bold  under- 
taking indeed.  As  there  are  no  big  works  and  no 
particular  trouble  seems  to  have  been  taken  to  avoid 
heavy  gradients  and  sharp  curves,  the  line  cannot  have 
been  expensive  to  build,  it  is  true,  but  a  survey  of  the 
country,  either  on  the  map  or  from  the  carriage  windows, 
inspires  questionings  as  to  how  enough  traffic  is  pro- 
vided to  make  these  140  odd  miles  of  line  from  Craigen- 
doran  to  Mallaig  pay  their  way.  The  questionings 
become  more  insistent  when  it  is  remembered  that  for 
nine  months  of  the  year  there  are,  beyond  Arrochar 
and  Tarbet  station — i.e.  over  more  than  120  miles  of 


6  EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT   BRITAIN 

the  line — only  two  passenger  trains  a  day.  Up  to  this 
point,  which  the  railway  company  appears  to  regard 
as  the  limit  of  what  may  be  called  the  suburban  dis- 
trict, the  trains  are  comparatively  frequent.  But  a 
pretty  close  acquaintance  with  the  traffic  dealt  with  at 
Arrochar  and  Tarbet  during  the  height  of  the  tourist 
season  leads  me  to  suppose  that  even  this  favoured 
spot,  which  serves  the  two  villages,  and  also  secures 
such  of  the  passing  Loch  Lomond  and  Loch  Long 
excursionists  as  do  not  travel  all  the  way  by  steamer, 
can  hardly  be  a  gold-mine  for  the  railway.  The 
opening  of  the  West  Highland  Railway  to  Fort  William 
led  to  quite  an  outburst  of  railway  building  in  the 
West  Highlands,  the  Caledonian  seeking  to  consolidate 
its  position  by  pushing  north  to  Ballachulish,  the  West 
Highland  itself  being  carried  later  to  Mallaig,  and  the 
Invergarry  and  Fort  Augustus  Railway  being  built  to 
connect  the  West  Highland  with  Loch  Ness.  This  was 
during  the  era  when  that  species  of  competition  was 
rife  which  led  railways  to  seek  to  invade  the  districts 
of  other  railways,  but  now  that  this  has  been  succeeded 
by  an  era  of  agreements  it  is  likely  to  be  many  a  long 
day  before  any  more  railways  are  built  in  the  West 
Highlands.  The  Invergarry  and  Fort  Augustus  Rail- 
way indeed,  having  proved  unable  to  pay  its  working 
expenses,  was  for  a  time  abandoned  altogether.  There 
is,  however,  one  short  connecting  link  that  is  badly 
wanted  to  join  the  West  Highland  Railway  to  the 
Highland  Railway.  The  two  railways  at  one  point  lie 
fairly  close  to  one  another,  and,  if  a  line  were  built  from 
somewhere  about  Tulloch  on  the  West  Highland  to 
somewhere  about  Newtonmore  on  the  Highland,  the 
very  serious  difficulties,  which  now  attend  a  progress 


THE   EAST  COAST  7 

across  the  Highlands  east  and  west,  would  be  greatly 
diminished. 

The  thick  and  thin  opponents  of  competition  would 
probably  rely  largely  on  the  case  of  the  North  Eastern 
Railway  to  bear  out  their  views.  Here  is  a  railway  less 
exposed  to  competition  than  any  other  in  England. 
Hardly  any  part  of  the  district  which  the  North  Eastern 
serves,  except  its  edges,  can  be  reached  by  another 
route.  Far  the  greater  part  of  the  North  Eastern's 
revenues  coming  from  goods  and  minerals,  it  is  perhaps 
not  surprising  to  find  unusually  perfect  arrangements 
for  the  working  of  goods  and  mineral  trains,  so  that  on 
the  North  Eastern  these  trains  earn  much  more  each 
mile  they  run  than  is  the  case  on  any  other  big  line. 
The  North  Eastern  believes  in  the  advantages  of 
accurate  knowledge  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the 
traffic,  and  it  is  known  to  compile  very  elaborate 
statistics,  which  enable  it  to  see  whether  the  results 
which  are  achieved  are  satisfactory,  and  indicates  the 
lines  on  which  further  economies  should  be  sought. 
But,  far  from  the  energies  of  the  North  Eastern  Rail- 
way being  exhausted  with  matters  affecting  the  carriage 
of  goods  and  minerals,  there  is  no  railway  in  England 
which  in  recent  years  has  shown  itself  more  receptive 
of  new  ideas  or  more  anxious  to  introduce  improvements 
of  all  kinds  made  available  by  the  increase  of  technical 
knowledge.  Whether  in  employing  road  motors  to 
collect  passengers  and  produce  to  feed  the  railway,  in 
introducing  electric  working  on  the  suburban  lines 
round  Newcastle,  or  in  laying  down  water  troughs  and 
building  the  new  King  Edward  Bridge  over  the  Tyne 
to  facilitate  the  working  of  its  main  line,  the  enterprise 
of  the  North  Eastern  has  been  remarkable.  And  though 


8  RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT  BEITAIN 

the  dead  weight  of  the  agreement  which  forbids  the 
East  Coast  companies  to  reach  Edinburgh  in  less  than 
7|  hours  from  London  prevents  the  regular  East  Coast 
trains  from  attaining  any  great  pace,  the  performances 
of  some  of  the  North  Eastern  trains,  which  are  not 
hindered  in  this  manner,  are  in  a  class  altogether  above 
those  of  ordinary  British  expresses.     For  some  years 
now  the  North  Eastern  has  run  a  train  daily  from 
Darlington  to  York — 44  miles — in  43  minutes,  while 
the  train  running  in  the  opposite  direction,  which  covers 
the  801  miles  from  York  to  Newcastle  in  84  minutes,  is 
nearly  as  good.     (It  used,  however,  to  be  2  minutes 
faster  than  it  is  now.)     Neither  is  it  on  the  main  line 
alone  that  the  North  Eastern  service  is  good,  the  best 
Leeds  and  Scarborough  trains  in  summer  being  equal, 
if  not  superior,  to  any  seaside  trains  in  the  country. 
Indeed,  the  thing  that  hinders  the  East  Coast  express 
trains  on  the  North  Eastern  from  being  much  better 
than  they  are  would  appear  to  be  the  existence  of  a 
competing   route,  which   in   theory  is  the  very  thing 
that  should  supply  a  stimulus  to  increased  exertions. 
The  North  Eastern  is  understood  to  be  less  attached 
to  the  agreement,  which  forbids  the  acceleration  of  the 
Scottish  trains,  than  are  the  other  companies  which  are 
parties  to  it.     The  weakness  of  the  position  of  a  railway, 
which  deliberately  refrains  from  offering  the  travelling 
public  facilities,  which  it  could  very  easily  offer,  does 
not  appear  altogether  to  have  escaped  the  managers 
of  the  North  Eastern. 

At  the  present  time  when  agreements  and  amalga- 
mations, not  only  among  railways,  but  in  many  other 
big  businesses,  are  the  order  of  the  day,  people  are  apt 
to  condemn  competition  altogether,  and  to  lose  sight 


THE   EAST  COAST  9 

of  its  obvious  advantages  ;  and  the  case  of  the  North 
Eastern  is  certainly  not  specially  calculated  to  show  up 
these  advantages.  If,  however,  the  matter  is  looked 
at  closely,  the  out-and-out  condemnation  of  competition 
appears  to  be  quite  as  bad  a  mistake  as  is  the  exactly 
opposite  attitude.  Competition,  when  it  really  exists 
in  what  may  be  called  a  free  state — i.e.  unhampered 
by  limiting  conditions,  explicitly  or  tacitly  arranged 
between  the  competing  parties — undoubtedly  stimu- 
lates the  spirit  of  enterprise,  and  tends  to  the  intro- 
duction of  all  sorts  of  speculative  improvements. 
Some  of  these  may  involve  waste  in  the  same  way  that 
a  proportion  of  all  enterprising  speculations  end  in 
failure  ;  but  the  public  gain,  due  to  the  success  of  the 
remainder,  which,  but  for  competition  would  never 
have  received  a  trial,  may  far  more  than  compensate 
for  the  waste  involved  in  the  failures. 

If  competition  of  the  narrow  kind — that  between 
comparatively  small  undertakings,  situated  close  to- 
gether, and  competing  for  the  traffic  between  the  same 
places — is  fast  dying  out,  competition  between  the 
bigger  and  more  powerful  undertakings,  by  which  the 
smaller  ones  are  being  replaced,  as  to  which  shall  give 
the  greater  facilities,  not  so  much  to  the  same  places, 
but  to  different  places,  situated  in  the  respective 
districts  of  the  different  competitors,  is  likely  to  increase 
more  and  more.  The  railway  facilities,  which  will  be 
at  a  manufacturer's  command,  may  well  decide  him 
whether  he  will  set  up  his  new  works  on  the  line  of  one 
company  or  another,  just  as  the  comparative  merits  of 
the  Great  Northern  and  North  Western  trains  may 
cause  holiday  makers  to  prefer  the  coast  of  Lincolnshire 
or  that  of  North  Wales.  And,  if  in  time  British 


10         RAILWAYS   OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

railways  all  pass  under  one  management,  so  that  the 
element  of  competition  is  excluded  from  questions  of 
this  kind  in  turn,  the  amalgamated  or  nationalised 
railways  will  still  find  that  there  are  a  number  of 
points  at  which  they  must  strive  to  keep  as  much 
custom  as  possible  for  themselves,  in  competition  with 
the  attractions  offered  by  the  railways  of  the  various 
continental  countries. 

Self-interest  in  some  form  or  other  is  the  power 
which  drives  along  commercial  undertakings  like  rail- 
ways. For  a  railway,  or  any  other  business,  to  be  run 
satisfactorily  for  its  customers,  it  is  desirable  that  the 
self-interest,  which  moves  those  who  direct  it,  should 
be  of  as  enlightened  a  type  as  possible.  As,  in  the 
field  of  morals,  it  is  often  very  difficult  to  fix  the 
boundary  line  between  enlightened  self-interest  and 
unselfish  benevolence,  so  in  commerce  the  concern 
which  devotes  the  greatest  energy  to  the  service  of  its 
customers,  is  often  found  to  be  the  most  profitable  to 
its  owners.  In  a  small  business  this  fact  is  apparent, 
and  makes  itself  felt  automatically,  but  the  conduct 
of  a  big  business  like  a  railway  is  so  much  complicated 
by  the  conditions  under  which  it  is  carried  on,  that  a 
full  comprehension  of  the  paramount  importance  of 
giving  the  best  possible  service  does  not  impose  itself 
in  the  same  manner. 

The  system  of  management  of  British  railways 
presents  many  points  which  are  open  to  criticism. 
The  shareholders,  who  are  the  actual  owners  and  the 
people  whom  the  financial  results  principally  concern, 
must,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  delegate  their  powers 
of  control  to  a  committee.  This  committee  is  the 
Board  of  Directors,  who  are  supposed  to  be  elected  by 


THE   EAST   COAST  11 

the  shareholders.  In  point  of  fact,  the  Board,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes,  elect  themselves.  The  directors 
periodically  retire  by  rotation,  but  it  is  the  rarest  thing 
in  the  world  for  any  director,  who  offers  himself  for 
re-election,  not  to  be  re-elected  by  acclamation.  If 
any  director  retires  or  dies  the  Board  simply  nominate 
his  successor. 

That  the  British  railway  shareholder  is  generally  a 
patient  and  uncomplaining  person  cannot  be  doubted, 
and,  when  he  desires  to  complain,  the  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  his  doing  so  effectively  are  great.  But,  for  all 
that,  the  bad  times,  from  which  the  railways  have 
suffered  in  recent  years,  have  on  various  occasions 
roused  the  usually  lethargic  shareholders  to  something 
like  active  revolt  against  the  Boards  of  Directors. 
Not  so  long  ago  the  North  Western  Board  found  them- 
selves engaged  in  a  struggle  of  some  duration  with  a 
body  of  shareholders  who  waged  determined  warfare 
upon  them,  and  who,  though  not  technically  victorious, 
are  believed  to  have  inspired  them  with  certain  search- 
ings  of  heart,  which  were  by  no  means  otherwise  than 
tending  to  the  more  efficient  conduct  of  the  business  of 
the  line  ;  and,  before  the  financial  results  achieved  by 
the  South  Eastern  and  Chatham  Railway  recently 
improved  so  much,  the  mutterings  of  a  storm,  which 
might  burst  in  fury  on  the  heads  of  the  directors  of 
that  line,  were  distinctly  audible  from  time  to  time. 
But,  if  the  English  shareholder  has  begun  to  make  him- 
self felt,  it  is  the  Scottish  shareholder  who  showed  him 
the  way.  Some  years  ago  the  North  British  share- 
holders practically  turned  out  the  whole  of  the  Board 
of  that  railway  at  one  swoop,  and  the  action  of  the 
Association,  which  was  formed  by  them  and  the 


12         RAILWAYS   OF   GREAT  BRITAIN 

shareholders  of  the  other  big  Scottish  lines,  did  some- 
thing towards  bringing  about  the  working  agreements 
which  now  exist  between  the  Scottish  railways. 

In  theory  the  Board  of  a  railway  consists  of  persons 
of  good  business  ability,  who,  possessing  the  great 
advantage  of  wide  experience  in  other  matters  besides 
railways,  have  at  the  same  time  enough  special  know- 
ledge to  have  a  definite  opinion  in  all  matters  of  policy, 
and  to  enable  them  to  exercise  effective  control  over 
the  railway  officers.  Now  this  the  Boards  can  hardly 
be  expected  to  do  when  the  circumstances  are  con- 
sidered. There  are,  no  doubt,  a  good  number  of  first- 
rate  men  of  business  on  the  Boards  of  the  different 
railways,  but  these  gentlemen  are  nearly  all  notoriously 
engaged  in  other  business  pursuits,  which  must  leave 
them  little  time  which  they  can  devote  to  the  prac- 
tically unpaid  work  of  railway  directing,  and  they  are 
frequently  deficient  in  special  knowledge  of  railways. 
The  consequence  is  that  the  officers,  who  really  do 
devote  their  time  to  their  work,  and  are  adequately 
paid  for  so  doing,  find  themselves — beyond  having  to 
keep  within  certain  financial  limits— subject  to  hardly 
any  effective  control,  and  have,  as  a  rule,  practically  a 
free  hand. 

A  railway,  in  fact,  like  any  other  big  business,  is 
not  really  managed  by  its  proprietors,  but  by  experts, 
who  may,  and  very  often  do,  have  little  or  no  pecuniary 
interest  in  it.  And,  however  competent  and  broad- 
minded  the  experts  may  be,  there  is  always  at  least  the 
possibility  that  they  will  fail  to  appreciate  the  points 
of  view  of  the  shareholders  and  of  the  public. 

As  regards  the  public,  their  interests  are  to  some 
extent  safeguarded  by  the  Government.  Parliament 


THE   EAST  COAST  13 

has  had  to  decide  what  conditions  are  most  conducive 
to  making  the  managers  of  railways  devote  as  much 
energy  and  intelligence  as  possible  to  supplying  the 
public  with  the  best  service.  The  theoretically  possible 
conditions  range  from  unlimited  competition,  without 
any  State  control,  on  the  one  hand,  to  a  State  monopoly 
on  the  other  (the  shareholders  in  this  case  being  repre- 
sented by  the  whole  population).  In  practice,  owing 
to  the  great  expense  of  building  a  railway,  and  to  the 
impossibility  of  recovering  any  appreciable  amount  of 
the  capital  sunk  in  a  line  which  becomes  derelict,  com- 
petition between  railways  connecting  the  same  places 
can  never  be  in  any  true  sense  unlimited,  and  the 
greatest  number  of  competitors  that  the  richest  traffic 
in  the  w^orld  could  attract  would  be,  perhaps,  three  or 
four,  while,  unless  there  is  an  assurance  of  a  very  con- 
siderable traffic,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  attract  any 
competition  at  all.  Then,  even  where  this  sort  of 
competition  theoretically  exists,  it  is  quite  impossible 
to  make  the  parties  who  should  be  competitors  compete, 
if  they  do  not  consider  that  it  is  to  their  interest  to  do 
so.  In  this  case,  instead  of  competing,  they  enter  into 
agreements  with  one  another,  whereby  each  one  binds 
itself  not  to  give  more  than  such  and  such  facilities  to 
the  public,  and  the  result  of  this  is  that  precisely  those 
conditions  are  brought  about  which  competition  is 
intended  to  obviate.  If  no  attempt  is  made  to  arrange 
for  competition  of  some  kind,  the  only  ways  in  which 
anything  can  be  done  towards  forcing  railways  to  give 
proper  facilities  are  to  impose  certain  conditions  upon 
them  as  a  price  of  allowing  them  to  come  into  exist- 
ence, and  to  reserve  for  the  State  certain  powers  of 
control.  This  is  always  done,  though  the  conditions 


14         RAILWAYS   OF   GREAT   BRITAIN 

imposed  vary  a  great  deal  in  different  countries,  and 
are  always  inadequate  of  themselves  to  secure  the  best 
results.  The  position  comes  to  this  :  all  railways- 
State  owned  or  otherwise — have  to  submit  to  more  or 
less  stringent  regulation  in  the  interest  of  the  public, 
and  in  some  cases  some  form  of  competition — generally 
that  more  than  one  railway  shall  participate  in  the 
traffic  between  the  same  places — is  also  arranged,  in 
the  hope  that  this  arrangement  will  act  as  a  stimulus 
to  efficiency.  The  question  to  decide  is  whether  this 
competition — which  is  necessarily  very  imperfect  be- 
cause its  intended  effects  can  be  evaded — does,  or  does 
not  do,  more  good  than  harm.  Experience  has  shown 
that  in  really  important  matters,  such  as  rates  and 
fares  and  speed  of  travel,  railways  are  always  very 
chary  of  competing  with  one  another.  If  explicit 
agreements  for  obviating  competition  are  made  illegal, 
as  in  the  United  States,  the  railways  have  tacit  under- 
standings with  one  another,  which  cannot  be  put  a  stop 
to.  In  minor  matters,  on  the  other  hand,  such  as  the 
internal  fittings  of  the  trains,  and  the  provision  of  meals 
en  route,  it  is  probable  that  competition  has  had  some 
beneficial  effect.  The  worst  of  understandings  between 
railways  is  that  they  not  only  suppress  competition  for 
the  time  being,  but  act  as  a  positive  hindrance  to  the 
introduction  of  improvements,  which  might  be  expected 
to  be  made  from  time  to  time  without  the  stimulus  of 
competition.  It  is  obvious  that  a  railway  manager  is 
more  likely  to  introduce  an  improvement  if  he  has  only 
the  interest  and  convenience  of  his  own  line  to  consider, 
than  if  he  has  first  also  to  enter  into  elaborate  negotia- 
tions with  a,  possibly  unsympathetic,  rival.  Moreover, 
the  very  fact  of  having  a  rival  to  consider  tends  to 


THE   EAST  COAST  15 

obscure  the  issue  for  him.  If  a  great  part  of  a  railway 
manager's  time  is  spent  in  arranging  matters  with  a 
rival,  the  desirability  of  preventing  his  rival  from  passing 
him  tends  to  assume  in  his  mind  an  altogether  exag- 
gerated degree  of  importance,  and  he  is  but  too  likely 
to  think  that  if  he  can  keep  pace  with  his  rival  all  is 
well,  and  to  ignore  the  fact  that,  by  increasing  the 
facilities  offered  to  the  public,  he  may,  in  any  case, 
secure  a  handsome  return,  entirely  apart  from  whether 
his  rival  does  or  does  not  also  offer  corresponding  new 
facilities.  So  much  for  theory.  Turning  again  to 
practice,  if  we  compare  the  conditions  in  Great  Britain 
with  those  in  other  countries,  we  are  not  much  helped 
in  any  endeavour  to  decide  whether  or  no  such  com- 
petition as  has  existed  between  different  routes  serving 
the  same  places  has,  on  the  whole,  shown  itself  bene- 
ficial. At  first  sight  it  would  appear  that  it  has  pos- 
sessed certain  advantages.  It  is  found  that  in  Great 
Britain,  the  only  European  country  where  different 
routes  between  the  same  important  centres  exist  to 
any  great  extent  under  separate  management,  the  train 
service  is  more  complete  than  anywhere  else,  and 
faster  than  anywhere  else  except  France,  and  the 
passenger  fares  are  by  no  means  particularly  high. 
But  when  we  remember  that  Great  Britain  was  the 
first  country  to  develop  railways,  and  so  got  a  long 
start  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  that  the  population 
of  Great  Britain  for  each  unit  of  area  is  much  greater 
than  that  of  any  other  big  country — more  than  twice 
as  great  as  that  of  France,  and  half  as  great  again  as 
that  of  Germany — we  see  that  there  are  other  causes 
to  which  these  effects  may  be  ascribed. 

No  considerations  of  this  kind,  however,  tend  in  any 


16         EAILWAYS  OF   GREAT  BRITAIN 

way  to  show  that  competition,  if  attainable,  is  in- 
capable of  producing  good  results  on  railways  at  the 
present  time.  Far  from  it — railways  present  so  many 
possibilities  of  improvement  that,  if  any  really  effective 
means  could  be  discovered  of  inducing  their  managers 
to  make  bold  experiments,  it  is  more  than  likely  that 
the  best  results  would  ensue.  As  has  just  been  re- 
marked, the  facilities  offered  to  passengers  are  certainly 
on  the  whole  greater  in  Great  Britain  than  elsewhere, 
and  in  conjunction  with — probably  in  consequence  of— 
this  it  is  found  that  the  passenger  receipts  per  head  of 
the  population  are  approximately  twice  as  large  as 
they  are  in  France  or  Germany. 

On  the  face  of  it,  then,  there  is  very  good  reason  for 
supposing  that  the  receipts  increase  with  the  facilities 
offered.  Now  the  two  things,  above  all  others,  which 
passengers  may  be  expected  to  care  for,  are  reduced 
third-class  fares  and  increased  speeds.  If  railway 
managers,  animated  by  some  real  spirit  of  competition, 
were  to  offer  these  advantages,  it  is  possible,  and  even 
probable,  that  travel  would  increase  so  much  that  the 
railways,  besides  conferring  a  very  great  boon  on  their 
customers,  would  themselves  secure  large  benefits. 

As  regards  the  goods  traffic,  the  definite  elimination 
of  all  competition  would  be  likely  to  have  the  result  of 
doing  away  with  several  very  unsatisfactory  features 
of  this  traffic.  Even  although  there  is  ostensibly  no 
competition  in  rates  between  the  different  companies 
serving  the  same  points,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
fear  of  losing  traffic  has  frequently  induced  railways  to 
make  concessions  of  various  kinds  to  traders,  the 
results  of  which  have  been  in  effect  to  give  more  or  less 
secret  rebates  to  the  traders  in  whose  favour  the 


THE   EAST  COAST  17 

concessions  were  made.     There  are  so  many  services 
connected  with  the  goods  traffic,  which  the  railways  can 
perform,  about  which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  lay 
down  any  rule  as  to  whether  they  are  properly  covered 
by  the  rate  demanded,  that  it  is  extremely  difficult  for 
any  outside  person  or  authority  to  bring  home  to  the 
railways  any  charge  of  undue  preference  with  regard 
to  them.     Then  a  custom  grew  up,  whereby  the  rail- 
ways spent  very  large  sums  of  money  in  providing 
warehouses,  where  the  traders  could  store  their  goods 
for  long  periods,  either  free  of    charge,  or,  at  least, 
without  making  any  adequate  payment.     Sometimes, 
too,  it  is  reported  that  for  fear  of  offending  a  trader  in 
a  large  way  of  business  the  railways  would  pay  totally 
unjustifiable  claims  for  compensation.     In  these  ways 
competition  must  certainly  be  held  to  have  existed, 
but  competition  of  a  most  unsatisfactory  nature,  and 
calculated  in  many  ways  to  give  an  unscrupulous  trader 
advantages  over  his  more  scrupulous  rival.     Any  com- 
bination among  the  railways,  therefore,  which  tends 
to  put  a  stop  to  practices  of  this  sort,  must  be  welcomed 
from  the  point  of  view  of  public  morality.     At  the  same 
time  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  there  is  another  side 
to  the  question.     Any  one  who  has  read  the  report  on 
the  Prussian  State  Railways,  published  a  few  years 
ago  by  the  Board  of  Trade,  will  recognise  that  a  pure 
monopoly  has,  under  certain  circumstances,  power  to 
safeguard  itself  in  all  its  dealings  with  the  public,  in  a 
manner  of  which  we  in  this  country  are  ignorant,  and 
which  no  British  trader  would  wish  to  see  introduced. 
The  danger  of  anything  of  this  sort  in  Great  Britain 
is,  however,  a  very  remote  one. 

The  uneconomical  manner  in  which  some  of  the 

c 


18         KAILWAYS   OF   GEE  AT  BEITAIN 

goods  traffic  has  been  conducted  is  illustrated  by  the 
important  judicial  decision,  recently  given  in  favour 
of  the  Scottish  railways,  which   authorised  them   to 
charge  demurrage  and  siding  rent  in  a  large  number  of 
cases  upon  rolling  stock,  which  was  withheld  from 
circulation  by  the  traders  for  an  unreasonably  long 
time.     This  shows  how  railway  companies  may  benefit 
themselves  by  combined  action.     Owing,  apparently, 
to  absence  of  co-operation  among  the  Scottish  railways 
in  former  times,   the  traders  had  found  themselves 
able,  by  playing  one  railway  off  against  another,  to 
detain  rolling  stock,  without  extra  payment,  for  con- 
siderable periods,  a  proceeding  which  entailed  much 
loss  upon  the  railways,  with,  no  doubt,  some  corre- 
sponding gain  to  the  traders  ;   and  this  state  of  affairs 
had  lasted  so  long  that  the  latter  held  themselves  ag- 
grieved when  at  length  the  railways  decided  to  insist 
upon  payment,  unless  greater  expedition  were  used. 
The  expense  of  this  greater  expedition  falling  entirely 
upon  the  traders,  while  the  railways  were  to  secure 
the  principal  benefits,  the  traders  found  themselves  in 
effect  called  upon  to  pay  increased  rates,  a  demand 
which  they  strenuously  resisted  till  they  lost  their  case 
in  the  courts. 

Apart  from  the  question  of  competition  in  the  service 
which  the  companies  offer  to  the  public,  there  has  in 
the  past  been  very  severe  competition  for  the  country 
which  each  line  was  to  serve.  There  are  only  a  few 
railway  companies  in  Great  Britain  that  have  secured 
any  considerable  districts  for  themselves  alone.  From 
the  very  beginning  the  companies  were  encouraged  to 
build  rival  lines  between  places  of  importance,  and  they 
continued  to  invade  each  other's  territorv  at  intervals, 


THE   EAST  COAST  19 

till,  in  many  places  where  there  is  a  large  population, 
the  lines  belonging  to  the  different  companies  form  a 
perfect  tangle.  Each  company  has  regarded  it  as  pure 
gain  to  make  its  way  to  as  many  centres  as  possible, 
though,  once  there,  its  lust  for  aggression  has  ceased, 
and  it  has  usually  been  willing  to  work  in  amity  with 
its  rivals.  The  most  conspicuous  instance,  in  recent 
years,  of  a  long-established  line  invading  a  new  district 
was  when  the  Great  Central  built  its  new  line  to 
London,  but  that  will  probably  be  the  last  instance  of 
the  kind  on  so  large  a  scale,  as  the  companies  have  now 
generally  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  principle  of 
territorial  aggression  is  a  mistake,  and  the  aim  of  the 
closer  understandings  with  one  another,  which  have 
been  entered  into  by  so  many  of  them,  is  in  effect  to 
divide  the  country  into  a  certain  number  of  districts 
which  do  not  overlap — or  overlap  to  a  small  extent 
only — and  to  leave  a  single  management  supreme  in 
each  district.  It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that, 
owing  to  the  much  greater  freedom  of  action  which  a 
single  management  enjoys,  it  is  at  least  as  likely  as  not 
that — in  spite  of  the  undoubted  benefits  which  real 
competition,  if  attainable,  is  calculated  to  confer — an 
arrangement  of  this  kind  is  in  practice  the  more  con- 
ducive to  the  benefit  of  the  public,  and,  as  the  principle 
becomes  more  firmly  established,  it  will  be  interesting 
to  note  its  results. 

In  working  a  railway  there  are  three  parties  con- 
cerned— the  public,  the  shareholders,  and  the  railway 
servants — and,  for  the  best  results  to  be  secured,  the 
interests  of  all  three  must  receive  due  consideration. 
If,  from  one  point  of  view,  the  interests  of  the  three 
parties  are  divergent,  and  one  may  undoubtedly  secure 


20         RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

some  temporary  profit  at  the  expense  of  the  others,  a 
broad  consideration  of  all  the  facts  shows  that  such  a 
triumph  brings  with  it  no  lasting  gain,  and  that  the 
interests  of  all  three  parties  are  really  identical.  If, 
for  instance,  rates  and  fares  are  made  so  low  that  the 
shareholders  receive  no  dividends  and  the  railway 
servants  inadequate  pay,  then  no  more  capital  is  forth- 
coming for  developments,  the  railway  servants  do  their 
work  badly,  and  the  service  provided  is  in  consequence 
certain  to  be  a  bad  one.  If  too  much  is  distributed  in 
dividends  to  the  shareholders,  or  if  the  railway  servants 
receive  excessive  pay  for  performing  an  inadequate 
amount  of  work,  analogous  evils  arise,  which  shortly 
affect  that  party  also,  which  in  the  first  instance  profited 
at  the  expense  of  the  others.  It  is,  therefore,  highly 
desirable  for  every  one  concerned  that  this  community 
of  interest  should  be  recognised  ;  and  it  is  certainly  a 
bad  thing  that  any  one  of  the  three  parties  enumerated 
should  be  in  a  position  to  starve  the  others  for  its  own 
supposed  benefit. 

So  long  as  it  is  desired  to  preserve  competition,  or 
some  semblance  of  competition,  between  railways  in 
the  same  country,  private  ownership  is  a  necessity,  and 
the  question  of  State  ownership  does  not  arise — at 
least  not  the  question  of  the  State  ownership  of  all  the 
railways.  When,  and  if,  it  is  definitely  decided  that 
competition  is  undesirable  or  unattainable,  a  new  set 
of  conditions  are  met  with,  and  one  of  the  barriers  to 
State  ownership  has  been  removed. 

Under  State  ownership  the  State  takes  the  place, 
which,  under  private  ownership,  is  held  by  the  share- 
holders, and  in  theory  there  is  no  reason  why  State 
railways  should  not  be  worked  on  the  same  principles 


THE   EAST  COAST  21 

as  railways  owned  by  non-competitive  private  com- 
panies.    One  school  of  thought,  indeed,  which  favours 
State  ownership,  does  so  on  the  ground  that  the  rail- 
ways would  still  be  worked  on  commercial  lines,  only 
with  greater  economy  and  efficiency.     This  school  may 
be  called  the  commercial  school.     They  see  certain 
obvious  causes  of  waste,  which  tend  to  increase  the  cost 
of  privately  owned  railways,  such  as  the  existence  of 
what  they  consider  an  unnecessarily  large  number  of 
directors  and  high  officials,  and  sometimes  two  trains 
running  where  one  is  enough.     They  think,  perhaps, 
that  rates  are  too  high  and  that  the  energy  of  the  com- 
panies is  misdirected.     They  therefore  favour  State 
ownership  because  they  see  the  advantages  that  would 
be  possessed  by  a  single  administration  in  reducing 
waste  and  being  able  to  direct  its  energies  into  the  most 
economical    channels,    unhampered    by    competition. 
They  may  also  think  that  a  State  department,  being 
the  servant  of  the  whole  nation,  would  be  less  avaricious 
and  fairer  in  its  charges  than  are  private  companies. 
But  the  views  of  this  school  would  be  almost  as  well 
met  if  the  railways,  instead  of  being  taken  over  by  the 
State,  were  united  under  a  single  private  company, 
which  would  be  bound  to  grant  new  facilities  to  the 
public  every  time  it  increased  its  dividends. 

The  political  school  of  thought,  on  the  other  hand, 
which  favours  the  nationalisation  of  railways,  ranges 
from  those  persons  who  have  a  sentimental  objection 
to  the  existence  of  any  large  monopoly  in  private  hands, 
through  the  social  reformers,  who  consider  that  the 
working  classes  do  not  receive  a  fair  share  of  the  good 
things  of  life,  and  that  the  existence  of  a  large  body 
of  organised  or  organisable  work-people,  directly 


22         RAILWAYS   OF  GKEAT   BRITAIN 

employed  by  the  State,  would  be  a  convenient  means  of 
bringing  to  bear  pressure  towards  effecting  in  a  peace- 
ful manner  that  redistribution  of  wealth  which  they 
desire,  to  the  anarchists,  who,  working  on  the  same 
lines  as  the  social  reformers,  but  with  different  ends  in 
view,  conceive  that,  under  State  ownership,  the  railway 
men  might  be  easier  to  influence  than  they  now  are, 
and  that  a  large  and  united  body  of  Government 
servants,  thoroughly  aware  of  their  power,  might,  if 
they  could  be  worked  up  into  a  state  of  sufficient  dis- 
content, be  very  effective  allies  for  the  purpose  of  over- 
throwing all  existing  institutions.  The  aims,  therefore, 
of  all  the  people  composing  this  class  are  essentially  not 
economic  aims ;  they  have  not  necessarily  any  desire 
to  increase  the  efficiency  of  railways  as  a  means  of 
transport,  but,  being  dominated  by  ideas,  the  fulfilment 
of  which  they  regard  as  of  paramount  importance,  they 
wish  to  turn  the  railways  to  account  in  promoting  their 
ideas,  without  in  any  way  considering  what  the  other 
effects  of  State  ownership  would  be. 

In  theory,  then,  the  commercial  and  political 
schools  have  nothing  in  common,  though,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  people  who  favour  the  nationalisation  of 
railways  are  not  sharply  divided  into  one  school  or  the 
other,  but  often  look  to  securing  greater  economy  and 
efficiency  concurrently  with  the  introduction  of  social 
reforms  affecting  the  railway  servants.  This  often 
really  means  that  they  hope  to  mix  up  business  with 
philanthropy — a  proceeding  which,  to  say  the  least  of 
it,  is  not  likely  to  have  good  results.  But,  whatever 
the  views  may  be  of  those  people  who  desire  the  State 
ownership  of  railways,  there  can  be  no  doubt  at  all  as 
to  the  first  result  of  such  a  reform,  and  that  would  be 


THE   EAST   COAST  23 

immensely  to  increase  the  power  of  the  railway  servants. 
As  Government  servants,  all  under  one  employer,  they 
must  be  far  easier  to  organise  than  they  are  at  present, 
and  the  united  pressure  which  they  could  exert  on  a 
Government  department,   by  means   of  their  voting 
power,    must     be     immeasurably    greater    than    the 
pressure  which  they  can  now  exert  upon  the  different 
companies,  which  are  not  amenable  to  direct  pressure 
from  votes  at  an  election.     Moreover,  the  officials  of  a 
Government  department,  because  they  are  practically 
irremovable,  would  have  even  less  direct  interest  in  the 
finances  than  have  the  officials  of  a  company,  and  must 
therefore  have  less  desire  to  take  the  trouble  to  resist 
unreasonable  demands  on  the  part  of  the  railway  ser- 
vants.    If,  then,  the  State  were  to  take  over  the  rail- 
ways,  the  relative  importance   of  the   three  parties 
interested  in    them — public,  shareholders  (i.e.  State) 
and  railway  servants — would  be  greatly  modified  in  the 
direction  of  giving  more  power  to  the  last  named,  to 
which  in  practice  the  only  check  would  be  the  force  of 
public  opinion.     This  force,   useful  enough  as  it  is, 
makes  itself  felt  but  slowly,  must  always  work  more  as 
a  corrective  than  a  preventive,  of  abuses,  and  would 
certainly  be  insufficient  of  itself  to  prevent  the  rise  of 
the   gravest   abuses.     Under   these   circumstances,  to 
expect  that  the  railway  servants  would  not  use  their 
power  to  exact  undue  privileges  for  themselves  would 
be  to  expect  on  their  part  a  restraint  uncommon,  if  not 
unknown,  in  public  affairs  on  the  part  of  any  body  of 
men  whatever.     If,  therefore,  the  railways  are  ever 
taken  over  by  the  State,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
question  of  disfranchising  the  railway  servants  will  at 
the  same  time  receive  serious   attention ;    unless  they 


24         RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT   BRITAIN 

were  disfranchised,  there  would  be  fear  of  develop- 
ments, which  would  prejudicially  affect  every  one  who 
had  to  do  with  railways,  not  least  the  railway  servants 
themselves. 

In  case  the  railways  were  nationalised,  it  is  quite 
likely  that  some  economy  would  be  sought  in  reducing 
the  salaries  of  the  principal  officers.  It  is  probable  that 
the  principal  officers  of  British  railways  at  the  present 
time  receive  salaries  a  good  deal  higher  on  an  average 
than  those  paid  to  the  principal  officers  of  any  State- 
owned  railway  on  the  Continent.  The  chief  advantage 
of  paying  adequate  salaries  appears  to  be  that  it  induces 
in  the  recipients  a  feeling  of  self-respect,  and  in  their 
subordinates  a  tendency  to  look  up  to  them,  which 
might  otherwise  be  absent.  The  reason  sometimes  put 
forward  that  good  salaries  attract  the  best  brains, 
although  superficially  attractive,  will  hardly  bear 
serious  examination.  Upon  railway  work  practically 
every  one  enters  in  early  youth,  long  before  he  can  have 
formed  any  real  estimate  of  his  own  abilities,  and  when 
the  remote  chance  of  eventually  occupying  one  of  the 
positions,  to  which  fairly  large  salaries  are  attached, 
can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  an  inducement  to  adopt 
the  profession.  And,  like  many  other  occupations,  the 
railway  service  does  not  offer  any  particular  facilities 
for  a  specially  good  brain  to  make  itself  felt.  Those 
fortunate  persons  who  have  made  their  way  to  the 
highest  positions,  would  probably  be  the  first  to  admit 
that  their  success  has  been  due  to  a  hundred  accidents 
of  influence  or  luck,  and  that  for  each  possessor  of  a 
good  brain  who  has  reached  a  high  position,  there  are 
a  score  of  others,  equally  gifted,  who  have  been  left 
behind.  It  is  probable  that  a  reduction  of  the  salaries 


THE   EAST   COAST  25 

attached  to  the  principal  positions  would  not  mean 
that  less  capable  men  would  be  secured,  but  that  these 
men  would  have  less  influence  than  is  now  the  case. 

To  judge  from  some  of  the  published  speeches  of  the 
trade  union  leaders,  a  scheme  which  commends  itself 
to  the  wilder  section  of  these  gentlemen's  followers  is 
that  British  railways  should  be  taken  over  by  the  State, 
and  "  not  run  for  profit."  In  this  way  it  is  suggested 
that  means  would  be  found  for  raising  the  wages  and 
improving  the  conditions  of  the  railway  servants, 
while  rates  and  fares  could  be  lowered  at  the  same 
time.  The  fact  that  the  only  possible  ways  of  effecting 
such  a  change  would  be  by  depriving  the  present 
owners  of  the  railways  of  their  property  without  com- 
pensation, or  by  increasing  the  taxation  of  the  country 
by  not  less  than  forty  million  pounds  a  year,  or  by  some 
combination  of  the  two  methods,  does  not  apparently 
cause  the  people  who  put  forward  these  proposals  the 
slightest  misgiving.  The  advocacy  of  such  schemes 
unfortunately  shows  that  those  who  propose  them  are 
ignorant  of,  or  indifferent  to,  what  is  possible.  The 
existence  of  companies  not  amenable  to  direct  political 
pressure  must  increase  the  difficulties  of  instituting 
wild  experiments,  which  some  political  combination 
might  endeavour  to  force  upon  the  Government,  and 
to  this  extent  at  least  must  be  acceptable  to  reasonable 
people. 

When  considering  the  question  of  the  possible 
nationalisation  of  British  railways,  w^e  may  glance  at 
the  results  of  the  State  ownership  of  railways  in  other 
countries.  Most  conspicuous  among  the  State-owned 
lines  of  the  Continent  are  those  of  Prussia.  The 
Prussian  Government  owns  all  the  important  main  lines 


26         EAILWAYS   OF  GEEAT   BRITAIN 

in  Prussia,  and  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  branch 
lines — it  may,  in  fact,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  be 
said  to  own  the  whole  railway  system.  A  fairly  good 
service  is  provided  and  quite  a  good  return  is  earned 
upon  the  capital  invested  in  the  railways.  The  con- 
ditions in  Prussia  are,  however,  peculiar.  In  the  first 
place,  the  State  ownership  of  the  Prussian  railways  is 
intimately  connected  with  the  commercial  policy  of  the 
German  Empire,  which  seeks  to  foster  German  export 
trade,  among  other  means,  by  very  finely  graduated 
preferential  rates,  which  are  carefully  adjusted  to  the 
details  of  the  German  system  of  protection.  Then, 
political  dangers,  due  to  the  voting  power  of  the  railway 
servants,  and  to  trade  unionism,  are,  for  various  reasons, 
infinitely  less  formidable  in  Prussia  than  they  would 
be  in  Great  Britain.  The  Prussian  Government,  for 
instance,  is  not  subject  to  Parliamentary  control  in  the 
British  sense ;  the  railway  servants,  being  reservists, 
can  at  any  moment  be  subjected  to  military  discipline  ; 
and  membership  of  unauthorised  trade  unions  is 
forbidden.  One  effect  of  State  ownership  is  that,  as 
the  earnings  of  the  railways  form  a  very  important  part 
of  the  Prussian  revenue,  there  is  considerable  reluctance 
on  the  part  of  the  Government  to  spend  money  in 
building  new  lines  anywhere  where  less  than  a  normal 
profit  would  be  likely  to  be  earned,  and  so  the  develop- 
ment of  the  railways  is  certainly  not  more  rapid  than 
might  be  expected  if  they  were  in  the  hands  of  private 
companies. 

In  France,  the  original  State  railways  were  bought 
up  by  the  Government  more  than  thirty  years  ago. 
They  run  through  comparatively  poor  districts,  and  the 
principal  reason  for  their  being  taken  over  by  the  State 


THE   EAST   COAST  27 

appears  to  have  been  the  difficulty  of  getting  any  one 
else  to  work  them.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not 
surprising  that  they  should  not  pay  very  well.  Then, 
the  Chemin  de  Fer  de  F  Quest,  which  was  taken  over  by 
the  State  quite  recently,  was  the  poorest  of  the  great 
railway  companies,  and  at  the  time  when  it  was  taken 
over,  was  in  no  way  fitted  to  cope  with  the  traffic 
passing  over  it,  so  that  in  this  case  also  the  State  started 
heavily  handicapped.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that 
the  entry  into  possession  by  the  State  was  closely 
followed  by  a  long  series  of  alarming  and  disastrous 
accidents,  and  that,  at  the  time  of  the  great  French 
railway  strike  of  1910,  this  railway  suffered  much  more 
severely  than  did  some  of  the  companies'  lines. 

In  Italy,  seven  or  eight  years  ago,  the  State  took 
over  the  working  of  the  railways,  to  find  itself,  so  far  as 
could  be  judged  from  the  reports  which  reached  this 
country,  face  to  face  with  a  state  of  practically  open 
insubordination  among  the  whole  body  of  the  railway 
servants,  while  the  grossest  abuses  were  rampant  on 
every  side,  and  lines  and  rolling  stock  were  in  a  con- 
dition bordering  on  decay,  and  were  entirely  inadequate 
in  quantity.  Humorous  descriptions  of  the  Italian 
lines  having  lately  become  less  frequent  than  they  used 
to  be  in  the  newspapers,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  the 
Italian  Government  is  gradually  effecting  improvements. 
None  of  the  foregoing  cases  present  enough  analogy 
to  the  circumstances  which  are  likely  to  arise  in  con- 
nection with  any  probable  scheme  for  the  nationalisa- 
tion of  British  railways  to  be  of  much  value  for  purposes 
of  comparison. 

The  great  mass  of  British  railway  servants  must 
be  included  in  the  category  of  only  semi-skilled  workers, 


28         RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT   BRITAIN 

and,  as  such,  do  not  receive  high  pay.  The  railway 
service  offers,  indeed,  the  advantage  of  permanent 
employment — a  man,  so  long  as  he  behaves  well,  is 
extremely  unlikely  to  be  dismissed.  But  the  existing 
conditions  of  service  are  naturally  not  sufficiently 
advantageous  to  produce  a  feeling  of  complete  con- 
tentment with  their  lot  among  the  whole  body  of 
railway  servants.  In  recent  years,  beyond  the  general 
rise  in  prices,  which  reduces  the  purchasing  power  of 
wages,  matters  have  no  doubt  got  worse  in  another 
way,  because,  in  consequence  of  the  agitation  against 
too  long  hours  of  work,  railway  servants  now  get  fewer 
opportunities  of  working  overtime  than  used  to  be  the 
case,  and  their  incomes  are  by  so  much  reduced.  Work 
on  railways  is  often  hard  and  exacting,  and  there  is, 
no  doubt,  on  the  part  of  railway  servants,  who  find 
their  conditions  of  life  unsatisfactory,  a  certain  amount 
of  that  perfectly  legitimate  discontent,  to  which  human 
progress  is  chiefly  due.  It  would,  perhaps,  be  too 
much  to  expect  that  such  discontent  as  exists  should 
make  the  men  affected  set  to  work  along  always  logical 
and  irreproachable  lines  to  find  a  remedy.  Some 
unwise  agitation  has  certainly  taken  place,  and  very 
crude  proposals  have  been  made  on  the  part  of  the  men, 
who,  in  one  way,  are  in  a  strong  position  as  against  the 
companies,  because  a  strike  on  their  part  cannot 
possibly  be  met  by  a  lock-out  on  the  part  of  their 
employers. 

In  1907  a  certain  unrest,  which  had  for  some  time 
been  apparent  in  the  railway  world,  came  to  a  head, 
and  there  were  threats  of  a  strike,  which  might  perhaps 
have  attained  some  magnitude.  The  exact  degree  of 
seriousness  in  the  situation  was  a  matter  of  great 


THE   EAST   COAST  29 

uncertainty.  Some  people  thought  that  the  situation 
was  very  serious  indeed,  and  others  were  of  opinion 
that  no  strike  of  any  importance  was  in  the  least  likely 
to  occur.  However  that  may  be,  the  representatives 
of  the  companies  and  of  the  men  each  agreed  to  meet 
the  Board  of  Trade  officials,  and  an  elaborate  scheme 
of  conciliation  and  arbitration  was  drawn  up  and 
accepted  on  the  spot  by  all  the  big  railways,  except 
the  North  Eastern  (which  "  recognised "  the  men's 
unions  and  had  different  arrangements).  The  ser- 
vants of  each  company  were  divided  into  a  number  of 
classes,  for  each  of  which  a  Conciliation  Board  (com- 
posed of  representatives  of  the  company  and  of  the 
men  *)  was  appointed.  These  Boards  were  to  en- 
deavour to  settle  any  dispute  which  might  arise.  If 
they  failed  to  do  so,  the  dispute  was  to  be  referred  to 
a  Central  Board,  representing  the  company  and  the 
whole  of  its  servants.  If,  here  again,  no  agreement 
was  reached,  the  matter  was  to  be  referred  to  arbitra- 
tion. A  considerable  number  of  claims  were  put 
forward  by  the  railway  servants  and  in  some  cases 
settled  by  the  Conciliation  Boards.  In  the  case  of 
some  companies  the  claims  were  referred  to  arbitration, 
and  the  men  were  generally  awarded  certain  small 
advances  in  wages  and  slightly  improved  conditions  of 
service.  Partly  owing  to  the  small  benefits  which  they 
received  under  the  conciliation  scheme,  partly  because 
under  it  the  claims  of  the  different  companies  were 
treated  in  different  ways  by  the  different  arbitrators, 
partly  because  the  scheme  (not  unnaturally)  took  some 
time  to  get  into  working  order,  and  possibly  also,  it  is 

*  The  men  were  not  at  liberty  to  elect  representatives  who  were  not 
in  the  service  of  their  own  railway. 


30         RAILWAYS   OF   GREAT  BRITAIN 

to  be  feared,  because  the  trade  unions  never  attempted 
to  give  it  a  fair  trial,  the  men  were  dissatisfied  by  it, 
and  the  dissatisfaction  thus  engendered  was  at  least 
the  ostensible  cause  of  the  strike  of  August,  1911, 
during  which  perhaps  as  many  as  150,000  men  were  for 
a  short  time  on  strike  together.  The  object  of  the 
strikers  on  this  occasion  was  apparently  to  force  the 
railway  companies  to  negotiate  directly  with  the 
officials  of  the  various  trade  unions,  to  which  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  railway  servants  belong. 

Now,  one  of  the  greatest  difficulties  in  devising 
efficient  machinery  for  the  settlement  of  disputes 
between  the  railway  servants  and  the  companies  is  that 
of  ensuring  that  this  machinery  shall  be  used  only  for 
the  purpose  for  which  it  has  been  called  into  being,  and 
particularly  is  this  the  case  where  trade  unions  are 
concerned.  Though  a  considerable  proportion  of  rail- 
way servants  belong  to  trade  unions,  the  larger  number 
do  not  belong.  The  trade  union  officials  are  always 
wanting  the  railway  companies  officially  to  recognise 
their  existence,  and  to  negotiate  directly  with  them,  on 
matters  which  concern  the  union's  own  members.  If 
the  companies  were  to  agree  to  do  this,  it  is  probable 
that  they  would  thereby  enormously  increase  the 
strength  of  the  unions,  because  those  railway  servants, 
who  now  hold  aloof  from  the  unions,  would  be  likely 
to  join  in  large  numbers  if  the  unions  once  became  the 
recognised  channel  of  communication  with  the  com- 
panies. Rightly  or  wrongly,  the  companies  (except 
the  North  Eastern)  are  reluctant  to  raise  up  bodies 
so  powerful  as  the  unions  would  become,  if  the  great 
majority  of  railway  servants  belonged  to  them.  If  it 
were  reasonably  certain  that  the  policy  of  the  unions 


THE  EAST  COAST  31 

would  be  directed  by  the  unconstrained  good  sense  of 
the  majority  of  their  members,  and  if  there  were  any 
real  assurance  that  the  members  would  agree  to  be 
bound  by  any  and  every  settlement  reached  by  the 
leaders,  there  would  be  great  reason  for  encouraging 
powerful  trade  unions  to  come  into  existence.  But, 
unfortunately,  it  is  notoriously  the  case  that  neither  of 
these  conditions  can  be  relied  on  to  obtain  in  practice. 
Trade  union  leaders  often  have  strong  political  leanings, 
and  make  use  of  their  positions  to  further  their  own 
political  ideas,  and  it  has  lately  become  quite  common 
for  trade  unionists  to  repudiate  settlements  made  on 
their  behalf  by  the  officials  of  their  unions. 

A  point  on  which  the  railway  companies  lay  much 
stress  is  that,  as  they  are  answerable  for  the  safety  of 
the  travelling  public,  they  must  be  absolutely  unfettered 
as  regards  the  men  whom  they  choose  to  promote  to 
occupy  the  most  responsible  positions,  and  in  the 
maintenance  of  discipline  ;  and  they  fear  that  if  the 
unions  were  recognised  the  officials  of  the  unions 
would  attempt  to  interfere  in  questions  of  promotion 
and  of  discipline.  The  same  is  the  case  in  matters  of 
policy.  For  instance,  one  of  the  complaints  of  the 
men  is  that,  owing  to  the  policy  of  using  bigger  engines, 
which  haul  trains  much  heavier  than  was  formerly  the 
case,  the  number  of  engine-men  required  is  propor- 
tionately reduced,  and  promotion  in  this  department  is 
retarded.  This  is,  of  course,  the  old  story  of  that 
increasing  efficiency  of  machinery,  which,  here  as 
everywhere  else,  bears  very  hardly  upon  the  labour 
which  it  displaces,  but  is,  at  the  same  time,  essential 
to  the  increased  prosperity  of  the  community,  by  the 
very  fact  that  the  labour  which  it  displaces  becomes 


32         KAILWAYS   OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

available  for  other  productive  purposes  ;  the  process  of 
adapting  this  labour  to  these  purposes  is  unfortunately 
a  slow  and  painful  one,  and  it  is  in  no  way  surprising 
that  the  unoffending  victims  of  the  process  should  give 
vent  to  the  bitterest  complaints.  Probably,  indeed, 
something  ought  in  fairness  to  be  done  to  compensate 
them  for  losses  from  which  the  community  benefits. 
But  to  give  the  trade  unions  facilities  for  opposing  a 
policy  which  is  to  the  public  advantage  is,  to  say  the 
least  of  it,  undesirable. 

The  report  of  the  Eoyal  Commission,  appointed 
after  the  strike  of  August,  1911,  to  inquire  into  the 
working  of  the  conciliation  scheme  of  1907,  accepted 
the  views  of  the  railway  companies  as  to  the  un- 
desirability  of  such  recognition  being  granted  to  the 
trade  unions  as  would  enable  the  unions  to  interfere 
in  questions  of  discipline  and  policy.  The  fact  that 
the  report  was  signed  by  all  the  members  of  the  Com- 
mission, including  those  whose  sympathies  would  under 
no  possible  circumstances  be  adverse  to  any  reasonable 
demands  made  by  the  trade  unions,  justifies  in  the 
completest  manner  the  attitude  taken  up  by  the 
railway  companies  on  these  points.  But,  when  this  is 
said,  there  is  no  reason  whatever  for  assuming  that 
railway  servants  may  not,  like  other  people,  have  real 
grievances,  and,  as  it  is  fairly  plain  that  no  Government 
will  ever  be  able  to  allow  a  general  railway  strike  to  go 
on  to  the  bitter  end,  on  account  of  the  suffering  and 
annoyance  which  would  thereby  be  inflicted  on  the 
public,  there  was  urgent  need  for  giving  the  railway 
servants  suitable  means  of  calling  attention  to  any 
grievances  to  which  they  might  consider  themselves 
subject.  With  this  in  view,  the  Commissioners  suggested 


THE  EAST  COAST  33 

certain  simplifications  in  the  conciliation  scheme  of 
1907,  which  in  effect  amounted  to  the  abolition  of  the 
Central  Conciliation  Boards ;  and  the  proposals  of 
the  Commission,  with  few  modifications  tending  to  give 
the  men  greater  facilities  for  presenting  their  case,  were 
accepted  by  both  sides.  The  question  of  the  recog- 
nition by  the  companies  of  the  men's  unions,  which 
threatened  to  bring  about  a  fresh  strike,  was  settled  by 
allowing  the  men's  secretary  on  the  Conciliation  Board 
to  be  a  person  not  in  railway  employ,  so  that  a  trade 
union  official  may  hold  this  position.  Questions  of 
discipline  and  policy  are,  however,  excluded  from  the 
scope  of  the  Conciliation  Board's  activities. 

It  is  probable  that  a  cause  which  contributes  much 
to  such  discontent  as  exists  is  want  of  sympathy  with 
their  subordinates  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  railway 
officials.  As  industrial  and  commercial  concerns  get 
bigger  and  more  complicated,  the  gulf  which  divides 
the  official  and  his  subordinates  widens,  perhaps  inevi- 
tably, and  innumerable  causes  of  friction  arise  through 
want  of  sympathy  and  understanding  on  the  one  side, 
and  ignorance  and  inability  to  state  a  case  on  the 
other.  To  these  are  added  suspicions  of  nepotism  and 
undue  influence,  in  a  large  proportion  of  cases  possibly 
groundless,  but  none  the  less  irritating  because  they 
are  not  disproved.  This  state  of  affairs  can  hardly  be 
considered  to  be  the  fault  of  any  one  in  particular,  but 
is  rather  one  of  the  unfortunate  results  of  modern 
industrial  conditions,  for  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
time  will  bring  a  cure. 

As  many  of  the  railway  servants  no  doubt  see,  any 
permanent  amelioration  of  their  lot  must  come  from  an 
improvement  in  the  position  of  the  railways,  and  from 

D 


34         RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

every  point  of  view  it  is  very  much  to  be  hoped  that, 
by  the  adoption  of  improved  methods  and  of  labour- 
saving  appliances,  the  work  of  each  man  may  be  made 
so  much  more  efficient  that  it  will  be  possible,  and 
indeed  necessary,  to  raise  his  wages  in  proportion. 

This  of  course  is  the  way  in  which  things  have 
been  tending  of  late,  and  the  greatly  improved  financial 
results  which  have  been  achieved  on  many  British 
railways  of  themselves  gave  reason  to  hope  that  means 
might  shortly  be  available  for  gradually  improving  the 
conditions  of  the  railway  servants,  though  in  view  of 
the  lean  years  which  the  railways  have  passed  through, 
the  shareholders'  claims  to  increased  consideration 
are  also  strong. 

But,  beyond  the  improvements  in  net  earnings  due 
to  normal  causes,  the  railways  have  another  source 
from  which  they  are  drawing  for  the  purpose  of  paying 
increased  wages  to  their  servants.  When  the  strike 
of  August,  1911,  came  to  an  end,  and  the  railways 
agreed  to  the  appointment  of  a  Royal  Commission  to 
review  the  Conciliation  Agreement  of  1907,  they 
received  from  the  Government  an  assurance  that,  if — in 
consequence  of  the  Commission's  recommendations— 
they  should  raise  the  wages  of  their  servants,  they  should 
be  allowed  certain  opportunities,  over  and  above  what 
they  previously  enjoyed,  of  increasing  their  charges  to 
the  public  for  the  carriage  of  goods,  so  as  to  indemnify 
them  for  their  increased  expenditure.  Since  the  strike 
the  companies  generally  have  made  considerable  addi- 
tions to  their  wages  bills,  and  they  have  made  certain 
small  increases  in  the  passenger  fares,  which  they  were 
free  to  do  without  fresh  powers  ;  and  they  are  turning 
to  account  the  fresh  powers  conferred  upon  them  by 


THE  EAST  COAST  35 

the  recent  Act  of  Parliament,  which  was  passed  to 
redeem  the  promise  made  by  the  Government  in  1911, 
to  increase  most  of  their  goods  rates — the  increased 
charges  generally  ranging  up  to  about  4  per  cent. 

The  position  of  railways  as  regards  their  inability 
to  vary  their  charges  in  harmony  with  the  general 
level  of  prices  has  not  been  in  the  past,  and  is  not  even 
now,  a  very  easy  one.  Ordinary  third  class  fares  prac- 
tically cannot  be  raised  above  a  penny  a  mile,  and, 
under  the  law  until  now  in  force,  such  ample  justifica- 
tion for  any  increase  in  goods  rates  has  been  required 
as  to  make  it  very  difficult  to  increase  them  at  all. 
So,  while  other  traders  have  been  free  nicely  to  regulate 
their  charges  according  to  the  fluctuations  of  the 
market,  the  railways  have  been  without  this  power, 
and,  when  for  any  reason  the  general  level  of  prices 
has  risen,  they  have  had  no  means  of  exacting  from 
their  customers  the  increased  payments,  which  would 
probably  have  provided  the  easiest  means  of  satisfy- 
ing the  demands  of  their  shareholders  and  of  their 
servants.  The  new  Act,  no  doubt,  relieves  the  situa- 
tion to  some  extent,  but  is  very  far  from  making  it 
possible  to  vary  railway  charges  often  enough  or  widely 
enough  to  correspond  with  the  variations  in  the  prices 
of  commodities. 

Regarded  in  the  broadest  way  the  truth  appears  to 
be  that  the  railways  are  in  several  ways  much  harder 
pressed  financially  than  they  used  to  be.  The  in- 
creasing efficiency  of  their  methods  and  of  the  new 
machinery  which  they  employ,  and  the  increasing 
volume  of  their  traffic,  have  so  far  only  partly  set  off 
the  general  rise  in  prices  which  has  lately  taken  place, 
the  very  largely  increased  exactions  of  local  authorities, 


36         EAILWAYS   OF   GEEAT   BEITAIN 

and  the  expense  involved  in  the  provision  of  the  new 
machinery  and  of  more  elaborate  rolling  stock.  The 
railways,  therefore,  have  been  obliged  to  hand  on  part 
of  their  new  burdens  to  their  men,  who,  in  some  cases — 
perhaps  in  many  cases — are  called  upon  to  do  more 
work  than  they  used  to  do  without  the  purchasing 
power  of  their  wages  being  raised  to  correspond. 
Indeed,  the  purchasing  power  of  railway  men's  wages 
seems  generally  to  have  declined  in  comparison  with 
what  it  was  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  as  has  also  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  shareholders'  dividends.  So, 
owing  to  economic  causes,  both  the  railway  companies 
and  the  railway  servants  find  themselves  obliged  to 
give  as  much  or  more  in  return  for  smaller  rewards  than 
used  to  be  the  case.  And,  meanwhile,  we  are  assured 
that  the  wealth  of  the  community  has  increased,  so 
that  the  positions  both  of  railway  servants  and  railway 
shareholders  have  in  recent  years  suffered  a  severe 
decline  in  comparison  with  the  general  level  of  pros- 
perity. This  state  of  affairs  having  at  last  been 
recognised  to  exist,  steps  are,  as  we  have  seen,  gradually 
being  taken,  partially  at  least,  to  rectify  it.  It  should, 
however,  not  be  forgotten  that  the  object  of  a  railway 
must  always  be  to  secure  the  highest  possible  net 
receipts,  and  that  a  reduction  of  charges,  rather  than 
an  increase,  may  be  the  most  satisfactory  means  of 
achieving  this  result. 

Secure  in  the  position  of  its  own  district,  the  North 
Eastern  has  never  been  inclined  to  enter  into  any  closer 
understandings  with  its  neighbours  than  the  actual 
working  of  the  through  traffic  necessitated,  and  now, 
when  alliances  between  big  railway  companies  are  the 


THE  EAST   COAST  37 

order  of  the  clay,  the  North  Eastern  alone  holds  aloof, 
and,  going  its  own  way,  appears  to  get  on  very  well. 
In  one  particular,  however,  it  has  been  unfortunate. 
Whether  owing  to  the  North  country  character,  or  for 
some  other  reason,  the  North  Eastern  has  been  somewhat 
liable  to  strikes  on  the  part  of  its  servants,  and — 
apart  from  the  great  strike  of  1911 — once  or  twice  a 
cessation  of  work  has  taken  place  so  sudden  and  so 
complete  that  Newcastle  has  become  on  the  instant 
like  a  beleaguered  city. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  decide  whether  York  or 
Carlisle  is  the  more  important  junction.  It  is  certainly 
into  these  two  stations  that  a  greater  number  of  different 
railways  run  trains  than  into  any  others  in  the  kingdom. 
But  there  is  this  difference,  that,  while  independent 
railways  run  into  Carlisle  from  every  direction,  no 
railway,  other  than  the  North  Eastern,  reaches  York 
except  from  a  southerly  direction,  and,  even  then,  over 
North  Eastern  metals.  To  such  an  extent,  indeed, 
has  the  North  Eastern  secured  the  monopoly  of  its  own 
district  that  the  whole  of  the  traffic  passing  between 
England  and  Scotland,  which  does  not  make  use  of  the 
North  Eastern  line,  is  confined  to  a  belt  of  country  along 
the  West  Coast,  which  gets  narrower  and  narrower  till 
the  neck  of  the  bottle  is  reached  at  Carlisle. 

If  at  the  present  time  the  Great  Northern  Railway 
no  longer  possesses  that  pre-eminence  among  other 
railways,  which  it  used  to  have  in  the  speeds  at  which 
it  runs  its  express  trains,  this  is  not  because  of  any 
relative  inferiority  in  its  locomotives.  As  in  old  days, 
the  Great  Northern  singles  were  some  of  the  finest 
engines  in  the  country,  so  now  the  newer  generation 
of  express  engines  is  almost,  if  not  quite,  the  most 


38         EAILWAYS   OF   GREAT   BRITAIN 

powerful  class  that  has  yet  been  constructed  in  Great 
Britain. 

Single  engines  have  always  appealed  to  the  imagina- 
tion. Their  appearance  is  often  very  striking,  with 
their  great  driving  wheels  which  give  an  impression  of 
immense  capacity  for  speed.  For  a  long  time  practi- 
cally all  express  engines  were  singles,  and,  even  after 
coupled  engines  had  been  introduced,  the  singles  were 
often  more  powerful  than  the  coupled  engines,  and 
worked  the  principal  trains,  so  that,  till  comparatively 
recent  times,  most  of  the  more  famous  British  engines 
were  of  the  single  type.  At  a  time  when  few  express 
trains  weighed  so  much  as  150  tons  and  troubles  from 
want  of  adhesion  did  not  arise,  the  single  engine  was 
naturally  used,  as  she  fulfilled  all  requirements,  was 
simple  to  design  and  keep  in  repair,  and  ran  freely. 
Whether  in  point  of  fact  single  engines  as  a  whole  are 
capable  of  faster  or  better  work  than  coupled  engines 
can  hardly  be  decided  for  want  of  really  comparative 
trials.  Big  driving  wheels  and  the  absence  of  coupling 
rods  undoubtedly  tend  to  smoothness  of  running,  and 
a  single  is  obviously  rather  cheaper  to  build  and  to 
keep  in  repair  than  a  coupled  engine ;  but  these 
advantages  are  by  no  means  overwhelming,  and  the 
extremely  high  place  which  the  singles  won  in  popular 
esteem  seems  to  have  been  due  as  much  to  the  absence 
of  real  competition  and  to  sentiment  as  to  the  actual 
work  which  they  did.  In  particular,  the  ability  to 
reach  exceptionally  high  speeds,  which  the  big  driving 
wheels  suggest,  appears  to  be  more  a  matter  of  the 
design  of  the  steam  passages  than  of  the  size  of  the 
driving  wheels,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
singles  are  capable  of  higher  speeds  than  equally 


THE   EAST   COAST  39 

well  designed  coupled  engines.  In  one  very  important 
particular,  indeed,  single  engines  (with  two  cylinders) 
are  less  well  suited  to  attain  high  speeds  than  coupled 
engines.  In  single  engines  the  whole  of  that  portion  of 
the  balance  weights,  used  to  counteract  the  backwards 
and  forwards  movements  of  the  pistons  and  piston- 
rods,  which  in  turn  produce  a  hammering  action  upon 
the  rails,  must  necessarily  be  put  in  the  driving  wheels, 
but  in  coupled  engines  it  can  be  distributed  among  all 
the  coupled  wheels,  when  its  undesirable  effects  are 
correspondingly  reduced.  Still  the  work  of  many  of 
the  singles  was  of  no  mean  order.  No  single  engines 
were  more  justly  renowned  than  the  Great  Northern 
engines  with  8-ft.  wheels,  which  not  only  looked  as  if 
they  could  go  like  the  wind,  but  in  point  of  fact  did  for 
many  years  work  the  fastest  express  trains  in  the  world. 
With  their  outside  cylinders,  and  domeless  boiler — so 
low-pitched  that  the  top  did  not  emerge  very  high 
above  the  covers  of  the  driving  wheels — these  engines 
always  attracted  attention,  and  in  many  ways  they 
presented  the  greatest  contrast  to  the  four-coupled 
inside  cylinder  engine,  which,  while  they  were  still  haul- 
ing the  best  Great  Northern  trains,  had  already  become 
the  standard  British  express  engine,  and  is  so  still. 

Up  to  1898  there  were  in  Great  Britain  no  express 
engines  with  more  than  8  wheels.  The  power  of  8- 
wheel  engines  is  fairly  strictly  limited  because,  in  order 
to  leave  a  large  margin  of  strength  in  the  permanent 
way,  it  is  not  usual  to  place  more  than  about  19  tons 
on  any  pair  of  wheels,  and  this  in  turn  makes  it  im- 
possible to  use  a  very  big  and  heavy  boiler.  When, 
therefore,  it  was  desired  to  increase  the  size  of  the  boiler, 
it  became  necessary  to  design  engines  with  a  pair  of 


40         RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

wheels  more  than  had  previously  been  employed.  The 
Great  Northern  was  the  first  line  in  Great  Britain  to 
build  express  engines  with  10  wheels.  The  design 
comprised  the  usual  leading  bogie  and  four  coupled 
driving  wheels,  with  an  additional  pair  of  small  un- 
coupled wheels  at  the  trailing  end  of  the  engine.  The 
first  engines  of  this  type,  although  considerably  more 
powerful  and  heavier  than  any  8-wheel  engines  which 
existed  at  that  time,  were  not  made  nearly  so  heavy  as 
the  increased  carrying  capacity  of  their  10  wheels 
made  possible,  and  after  a  few  years'  interval  they 
were  followed  by  a  design  which,  with  the  same  wheels, 
was  given  a  much  bigger  and  more  powerful  boiler. 
These  engines  are  the  standard  4-4-2  *  Great 
Northern  express  engines  of  the  present  day.  With 
the  combined  boldness  and  originality  of  their  design, 
they  still  have  the  advantage  of  being,  for  their  power, 
rather  light  machines.  This  result  is  brought  about  by 
setting  the  wheels  as  close  together  as  possible,  and 
securing  the  power  required  by  means  of  a  short  fire- 
box of  much  greater  width  than  usual,  and  a  boiler 
barrel  of  unusually  large  diameter.  The  wide  fire-box, 
a  device  much  used  in  America,  had,  up  to  the  time 
when  these  engines  were  designed,  hardly  been  seen  in 

*  Up  to  quite  recently  there  was  no  generally  recognised  way  of 
describing  shortly  and  clearly  the  wheel  arrangements  of  engines.  An 
ingenious  and  simple  plan,  suggested  I  believe  in  America,  now  supplies 
the  deficiency.  According  to  this  plan,  every  engine  is  regarded  as 
having  leading,  driving,  and  trailing  wheels,  and  is  described  by  simply 
writing  down  the  numbers  of  wheels  in  each  group,  one  after  the  other, 
a  0  being  written  in  case  the  engine  under  consideration  does  not  possess 
uncoupled  leading  or  trailing  wheels.  Thus  an  8-wheel,  four-coupled 
engine  with  a  leading  bogie  is  written  4-4-0,  and  a  6-wheel,  six-coupled 
engine,  0-6-0  ;  the  big  Great  Northern  express  engines  are  of  the  4-4-2 
type,  and  so  on. 


THE   EAST  COAST  41 

these  islands,  and  even  now  there  are,  outside  the 
Great  Northern  Railway — and  the  Brighton  Railway, 
which  possesses  a  few  engines  of  practically  the  same 
type — not  half  a  dozen  engines  in  Great  Britain  which 
have  this  feature.  With  ample  means  of  generating 
steam,  the  Great  Northern  engines  have  cylinders  of 
only  moderate  size  for  utilising  it,  and  are  thus  machines 
of  that  very  comfortable  type  for  the  driver  and  fireman, 
which  can  always  easily  produce  as  much  steam  as  is 
wanted.  The  cylinders  would,  no  doubt,  theoretically 
be  better  inside  the  frames  than  outside  them,  as  they 
are,  but  the  arrangement  of  the  wheels  makes  the 
employment  of  inside  cylinders  very  difficult,  and,  after 
all,  the  smaller  degree  of  steadiness  in  an  engine  with 
outside  than  in  one  with  inside  cylinders  does  not 
amount  to  much  in  practice. 

The  4-4-2  design,  since  its  introduction  by  the 
Great  Northern,  has  been  adopted  by  a  great  many 
railways  for  their  biggest  express  engines,  and  this  has 
been  the  case  especially  with  the  North  Eastern  and 
North  British  railways,  the  Great  Northern's  partners 
in  the  East  Coast  route.  All  three  of  these  lines  now 
possess  exceptionally  powerful  4-4-2  engines,  and 
the  only  really  conspicuous  difference  between  these 
engines  is  in  the  construction  of  the  fire-box — the  Great 
Northern  engines  have  (as  already  remarked)  the  short 
wide  sort,  most  of  the  North  Eastern  engines  have  the 
ordinary  kind,  and  the  North  British  engines  have  the 
Belpaire.  A  less  noticeable,  but  none  the  less  im- 
portant, difference  is  that  the  North  Eastern  and  North 
British  engines,  particularly  the  latter,  have  bigger 
cylinders  and  higher  steam-pressure  than  have  the 
Great  Northern  engines.  If  engines  could  be  sharply 


42         RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

divided  into  classes  intended  to  work  on  the  level,  and 
classes  intended  to  work  up  and  down  steep  hills,  the 
former  would  receive  cylinders  smaller,  in  proportion 
to  the  diameter  of  the  driving  wheels  and  the  pressure 
of  the  steam,  than  the  latter  would  receive,  because, 
while  in  each  class  the  weight  of  the  steam  produced 
each  minute  and  the  most  economical  point  of  cut- 
off were  approximately  the  same,  the  latter,  so  long  as 
they  were  going  uphill,*  would  run  slower  than  the 
former  would  run  on  the  level,  and  their  boilers  would 
therefore  be  capable  of  supplying  more  steam  for  each 
stroke  of  the  piston.  Owing  to  the  extremely  varying 
nature  of  the  gradients  of  most  British  lines,  it  is 
seldom  possible  to  design  engines  solely  with  a  view  to 
their  performing  the  most  economical  work  on  the  level, 
but  the  Great  Northern  main  line  happens  to  be  excep- 
tionally free  from  really  steep  gradients,  and  the  Great 
Northern  designers  have  turned  this  fact  to  account. 

In  its  latest  batch  of  4-4-2  engines  the  North 
Eastern  has  adopted  an  almost  new  arrangement,  by 
employing  three  high-pressure  cylinders,  all  driving  on  to 
the  first  coupled  axle — two  outside  and  the  other  on 
the  centre  line  of  the  engine.  In  engines  of  such  great 
power  there  are,  no  doubt,  advantages  in  using  more 
than  two  cylinders,  and  although,  from  a  mechanical 
point  of  view,  four  cylinders  are  preferable  to  three,  the 
three-cylinder  arrangement  is  probably  cheaper  and 
offers,  in  its  turn,  important  advantages  over  the  two- 
cylinder  arrangement  in  the  way  of  better  balancing 
and  greater  security  from  breakdown. 

A  few  years  ago  many  of  the  engines  employed  in 
Great  Britain  were  much  smaller  than  those  now  in 

*  Downhill  practically  any  boiler  would  be  considered  sufficient. 


THE   EAST   COAST  43 

use,  and  on  many  lines  it  was  quite  common  to  see  two 
hauling  one  train.  Even  at  that  time  it  frequently 
happened  that  the  train  could  have  been  taken  by  one 
engine,  and — though  in  a  certain  number  of  cases  the 
assisting  engine  was  going  home,  and  was  put  on  to  the 
train  merely  as  means  of  getting  her  to  her  shed — there 
is  no  doubt  that  the  practice  of  piloting  had  on  some 
railways  reached  excessive  proportions.  One  of  the 
reasons  for  this,  no  doubt,  was  the  view,  which  some 
authorities  hold,  that  it  is  uneconomical  to  force  a 
boiler.  An  engine  working  near  the  limit  of  her  power 
is  considered  to  wear  her  boiler  out  so  rapidly  that  it 
is  cheaper  in  the  end  to  employ  an  assisting  engine  with 
driver  and  fireman  complete.  That  there  is  very  much 
force  in  this  contention  appears  highly  doubtful,  when 
the  clear  loss  incurred  in  employing  an  extra  engine  is 
set  against  the  extremely  problematical  losses  entailed 
by  not  doing  so.  In  any  case,  the  question  of  when,  if 
at  all,  it  is  advisable  to  use  a  pilot  engine  is  obviously 
to  a  very  large  extent  a  matter  of  opinion  ;  it  is,  more- 
over, clear  that  a  railway,  which  does  not  resort  to 
piloting,  but  expects  the  drivers  to  get  the  last  pound 
of  work  out  of  their  engines,  is  more  likely  to  have  a 
staff  of  efficient  engine-men,  who  will  thoroughly  under- 
stand and  look  after  their  engines,  than  a  line  which 
allows  a  second  engine  with  any  difficult  train.  In  the 
last  six  or  seven  years,  however,  so  many  much  more 
powerful  engines  than  were  formerly  employed  have 
been  built  that  the  question  of  piloting  has  rather 
receded  into  the  background.  Instead  of  that  a  fresh 
difficulty  arises,  which  is  to  provide  the  more  powerful 
engines,  which  now  exist,  with  trains  suited  to  their 
power.  Indeed,  on  some  railways,  such,  for  instance. 


44         RAILWAYS   OF  GEEAT   BRITAIN 

as  the  North  British,  there  can  hardly  be  a  single  train 
which  provides  a  really  adequate  load  for  the  bigger 
engines  now  in  use.  And  this  means  that  a  considerable 
amount  of  capital  is  wasted  owing  to  the  engines  being 
much  bigger  and  therefore  more  expensive  than  is 
necessary.  It  is  of  course  a  matter  of  great  difficulty 
to  arrange  that  the  engines  shall  be  neither  much  to 
big  nor  much  too  small  for  their  work,  considering  the 
variety  of  work  which  an  engine  is  currently  called 
upon  to  perform.  The  tendency  now  all  over  the 
world  is  to  build  engines  so  big  that  they  can  always 
perform  without  assistance  anything  they  are  called 
upon  to  do,  but  when  this  tendency  is  carried  so  far 
that  the  engine  practically  never  gets  a  load  which 
causes  her  to  approach  within  measurable  distance  of 
working  hard,  it  seems  as  though  a  sense  of  proportion 
were  somewhat  lacking. 

It  is  not  very  easy  to  decide  what  is  the  best  measure 
of  the  power  of  an  engine.  The  question  is  much  com- 
plicated by  the  enormous  difference  in  the  quality  of 
fuel  burnt  in  different  engines  in  different  parts  of  the 
world,  which  may  make  it  necessary  for  one  engine  to 
burn  twice  or  three  times  as  much  fuel  as  another  in 
order  to  produce  the  same  result,  and,  under  such 
circumstances,  without  knowing  the  calorific  values  of 
the  different  fuels  used,  it  is  hopeless  to  attempt  to  lay 
down  any  rule.  But  even  when  the  fuel  burnt  is  of  fairly 
equal  quality,  it  is  not  easy  to  decide  upon  the  most 
accurate  measure.  If  fire-boxes  of  approximately  the 
same  depth  and  shape  were  always  employed  the  area  of 
the  grate  would  probably  be  the  best  measure,  but  the 
dimensions  of  fire-boxes  vary  considerably,  and  some 
will  hold,  in  proportion  to  the  area  of  the  grate,  so  much 


THE   EAST  COAST  45 

more  fuel  than  others  that  some  measure,  other  than 
the  grate  area,  must  be  sought.  On  the  whole,  perhaps, 
the  area  of  the  opening  left  free  for  the  passage  of  the 
hot  gases  through  the  tubes  is  the  most  accurate 
measure.  This  means  that  the  power  of  different 
engines,  which  burn  fuel  of  the  same  quality,  may  be 
taken  to  vary  as  the  square  of  the  diameter  of  the 
barrels  of  their  boilers. 

The  principal  reason  for  the  increased  power  of 
modern  engines  is  the  increased  weight  per  passenger 
of  modern  carriages.  The  art  of  building  carriages  has 
proceeded  quite  as  fast  as  has  the  art  of  building 
engines  to  haul  them,  and  while  British  designers  have 
not  refused  to  learn  from  the  designers  of  other 
countries,  they  have  also  done  a  great  deal  of  original 
thinking  with  satisfactory  results.  Various  lines  have 
at  different  times  introduced  Pullman  cars,  which 
once  were  considered  to  afford  the  acme  of  luxury  in 
railway  travelling.  The  Brighton  Railway  is  the  only 
railway  which  has  consistently  run  large  numbers  of 
these  vehicles,  and  whose  latest  and  most  luxurious 
trains  are  composed  of  the  latest  specimens  of  them. 
But,  though  the  Pullmans  have  never  taken  deep  root 
in  this  country,  the  influence  which  they  have  exerted 
upon  the  design  of  railway  carriages  has  been  out  of  all 
proportion  to  their  numbers,  and,  if  at  the  present  time 
British  passenger  vehicles  are  at  least  equal  to  any  in 
the  world,  this  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
Pullmans  showed  the  British  designers  that  their  designs 
were  susceptible  of  great  improvements,  and  sug- 
gested lines  of  advance,  which  have  since  been  thought 
out  and  acted  upon  with  so  much  success.  Striking 
indeed  is  the  difference  between  the  shanties  on  four 


46         RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

wheels,  which  not  so  very  long  ago  were  the  standard 
British  railway  carriages,  and  the  strongly-built,  roomy, 
and  smooth-running  vehicles,  of  which  all  British  main- 
line trains,  and  not  a  few  of  the  suburban  trains  too, 
are  now  composed.  In  this  conservative  country  the 
carriages  were  at  first  built  closely  to  resemble  the 
stage  coaches  which  they  replaced,  and  only  step  by 
step  did  the  stage  coach  idea  disappear,  till  at  the  pre- 
sent time  the  tendency  is  to  make  the  different  kinds  of 
passenger  vehicles  as  much  as  possible  like  the  rooms 
of  an  ordinary  house.  Owing  to  the  nature  and  extent 
of  the  American  territory,  the  desirability  of  this 
course  became  apparent  in  the  United  States  long  before 
it  did  in  Europe,  but,  once  the  European  designers  had 
thrown  over  their  original  prejudices,  it  was  discovered 
that  European,  and  even  British  insular,  conditions 
afforded  ample  room  for  the  development  of  what  may 
be  called  the  dwelling-house  theory  in  the  construction 
of  railway  vehicles.  British  designers  have  not  by  any 
means  slavishly  followed  in  the  steps  of  their  American 
confreres,  and  whatever  may  be  the  advantages  of  the 
American  types  of  vehicle,  which  commend  them  to 
Americans,  there  is  no  doubt  that  British  carriages  are 
far  better  adapted  to  the  views  of  British  travellers 
than  carriages  of  the  American  design  would  be.  This 
is  particularly  the  case  in  the  matter  of  privacy.  In 
America  the  carriages,  including  the  sleeping  carriages, 
are,  as  a  rule,  without  partitions.  In  Great  Britain 
almost  all  the  carriages  except  the  dining-cars  are 
divided  into  small  compartments.  Americans  appear 
to  like  to  be  together  as  much  as  possible,  but  an 
Englishman,  after  a  very  short  experience  of  the 
misery  which  one  baby  endowed  with  lusty  lungs  can 


THE   EAST   COAST  47 

inflict  upon  perhaps  the  sixty  or  seventy  occupants  of 
an  American  carriage,  comes  to  the  conclusion  that 
compartment  carriages,  where  a  refuge  from  such 
inflictions  can  almost  always  be  found,  possess  decisive 
advantages.  British  corridor  carriages  with  vestibules 
for  passing  from  one  carriage  to  another,  enabling  the 
passengers  to  move  about  freely  in  and  out  of  the 
dining  cars  and  smoking  compartments,  render  stops 
entirely  unnecessary,  except  for  setting  down  and 
taking  up  passengers,  and  for  locomotive  purposes.  No 
development  of  recent  years  has  been  more  striking 
than  the  increased  distances  which  the  principal  trains 
run  without  stopping.  So  far  as  the  passengers  are 
concerned,  these  longer  runs  are  chiefly  due  to  the 
introduction  of  corridor  carriages  and  dining  cars, 
while,  as  regards  the  engines,  their  requirements  have 
been  met  by  the  installation  of  water-troughs  on  nearly 
all  the  principal  English  long-distance  lines,  and  by 
more  perfect  lubricating  arrangements,  which  enable 
the  bearings  to  run  for  longer  periods  without  attention. 
Corridor  carriages  naturally  cannot  seat  so  many 
people  as  carriages  of  the  closed  compartment  type,* 
and,  what  with  the  introduction  of  dining-cars,  and  the 
much  more  solid  build  of  vehicles  generally,  the  weight 
of  the  trains  has  much  increased  of  late  years,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  at  all  that  passengers,  in  main- line  trains 
at  least,  get  much  more  for  their  money  than  they  used 
to  get.  One  extremely  desirable,  though  expensive, 
reform  that  has  been  carried  out  is  not  perhaps  so 
generally  appreciated  as  it  ought  to  be,  and  that  is  the 
much  greater  strength  of  modern  carriages,  which  gives 

*  Unless  the  space  allowed  for  each  passenger  is  severely  reduced, 
as  is  unfortunately  done  on  some  British  railways. 


48         RAILWAYS   OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

far  increased  security  in  case  of  accident.  Time  was 
when,  if  an  accident  took  place,  it  was  a  constant  occur- 
rence for  the  carriages  to  telescope,  that  is,  to  be  crushed 
together  lengthwise,  with  the  most  disastrous  conse- 
quences for  their  occupants.  Present-day  carriages 
are  built  so  strongly  that  when  an  accident  takes  place 
telescoping  does  not  as  a  rule  occur — though,  un- 
fortunately, there  are  exceptions  to  this  rule — and  in 
some  recent  accidents  it  is  remarkable  how  small,  for 
this  reason,  the  loss  of  life  and  the  injuries  have  been. 
So,  if  these  carriages  have  been  expensive  to  build,  there 
has  been  some  corresponding  economy.  In  another 
direction,  too,  the  economy  must  to  some  extent  balance 
the  extra  expense.  Modern  carriages  almost  invariably 
run  on  bogies,  which,  though  they  involve  some  in- 
creased expense,  by  their  greater  flexibility  much  in- 
crease the  smoothness  of  the  motion  and  diminish  the 
wear  and  tear  of  wheels,  springs,  and  rails.  The 
carriages  are  thereby  made  easier  for  the  engine  to  haul, 
and  the  expenses  of  the  upkeep  of  both  carriages  and 
permanent  way  are  reduced. 

Till  the  time  when  corridor  and  sleeping  carriages 
and  dining  cars  were  introduced,  the  British  loading 
gauge  afforded  plenty  of  room,  and  passenger  vehicles 
were  not  built  up  to  the  full  limits  of  height  and  width 
permissible.  Since  then,  however,  every  available  inch 
of  space  has  been  requisitioned.  As  regards  height,  the 
first  step  taken  to  provide  more  light  and  air  was  the 
introduction  of  clerestories,  which  a  few  years  ago  had 
a  considerable  vogue,  but  the  latest  practice  is  to 
utilise  all  the  space  available  above,  as  well  as  at 
the  sides,  and  to  give  the  carriages  high  elliptical  roofs. 

Perhaps  the  present-day  sleeping  carriages,  in  which 


THE  EAST  COAST  49 

each  passenger  has  a  compartment  to  himself,  are  the 
most  striking  examples  of  the  luxury  which  railways 
can  supply.*  Although  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  a  sleeping  carriage,  even  of  the  most  luxurious 
type,  brings  in  an  adequate  profit  to  the  railway  when 
it  is  reasonably  full,  it  is  certainly  in  these  vehicles  that 
the  ordinary  railway  traveller  gets  the  greatest  amount 
of  accommodation  for  his  money.  When  it  is  remem- 
bered that  the  space  occupied  by  each  compartment  is 
certainly  more  than  double  that  which  would  be 
occupied  by  a  first-class  passenger  in  a  day  train,  the 
extra  fare  charged  of  ten  shillings  for  a  400  or  500  mile 
journey  certainly  does  not  seem  excessive.  And  it  is 
only  since  sleeping  carriages  became  so  luxurious  that 
the  extra  fare  has  been  ten  shillings  ;  not  so  long  ago  it 
was  but  five  shillings  for  any  journey.  How  great  a 
contrast  these  charges  are  to  those  which  have  to  be 
paid  upon  the  Continent  is  taught  by  a  very  short 
experience  of  those  of  the  International  Sleeping  Car 
Company.  But  British  railways  have  never  tried  to 
make  money  directly  out  of  the  sleeping  carriage  sup- 
plements, being,  perhaps,  of  opinion  that  the  principal 
function  of  these  vehicles  was  to  attract  to  the  first- 
class  people  who,  if  there  were  no  sleeping  carriages, 
would  have  travelled  third  class,  and  to  induce  people 
to  travel  who  only  had  time  to  do  so  by  night,  and 
who,  unless  they  could  travel  in  a  really  comfortable 
manner,  would  prefer  not  to  travel  at  all. 

An  East  Coast  sleeping  compartment,  containing 
one  person  only,  fitted  with  a  three-speed  electric  fan 

*  Even  with  carriages  built  as  wide  as  the  loading  gauge  will  allow, 
a  very  tall  man  has  in  some  cases  barely  enough  room  to  lie  full  length ; 
but  few  people  are  tall  enough  to  be  inconvenienced. 

E 


50          RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

and  a  lamp,  which  will  give  either  a  bright  light  or  a 
dull  glow,  certainly  offers  very  reasonable  possibilities 
of  passing  a  comfortable  night.  Comfortable  as  it  is, 
however,  and  perhaps  approaching  the  limit  of  what  is 
commercially  possible  on  a  large  scale,  the  accommo- 
dation which  it  supplies  is  far  surpassed  by  that 
offered  in  carriages  of  special  construction,  particularly 
in  countries  where  very  long  journeys  are  made.  In 
America  I  once  passed  the  night  in  a  private  railway 
carriage  in  which  I  was  given  to  myself  a  room  about 
12  ft.  by  10  ft.,  with  a  balcony  outside.  But  for 
the  ordinary  mortal,  on  ordinary  occasions,  anything 
of  this  sort  is,  of  course,  out  of  the  question. 

A  good  deal  is  heard  from  time  to  time  about  the 
desirability  of  providing  sleeping  accommodation  for 
third-class  passengers.  So  far  the  railway  companies 
have  utterly  refused  to  move  in  the  matter,  and  have 
given  a  conspicuous  example  of  how  the  absence  of  any 
real  competition  between  them  enables  them  to  ignore 
any  question  which  they  consider  awkward.  It  is, 
nevertheless,  rather  surprising  that  they  should  adopt 
this  attitude  in  a  case  of  the  kind.  They  are  offered 
in  this  matter  an  opportunity  of  securing  a  reputation 
for  liberality  and  progressiveness  at  very  small  cost  to 
themselves.  The  only  lines,  on  which  any  real  demand 
for  third  class  sleeping  accommodation  exists,  are  the 
East  and  West  Coast  and  Midland  routes  to  Scotland. 
If  third  class  sleeping  carriages  were  attached  to  six  or 
seven  trains  between  London  and  Scotland  each  way 
every  night,  it  is  probable  that  any  existing  demand 
would  be  fairly  well  satisfied.  And  the  expense  should 
be  quite  small.  It  is  certainly  possible  to  design  third 
class  sleeping  carriages  to  contain  three  beds  a  side  in 


THE  EAST  COAST  51 

the  same  space  as  is  now  allotted  to  an  ordinary  third 
class  compartment,  which  in  a  corridor  carriage  holds 
eight  people,  so  that  the  extra  space  required  would 
amount  to  very  little,  particularly  as  sleeping  carriages 
can  be  better  filled  than  ordinary  carriages,  because 
berths  have  to  be  ordered  beforehand,  and  the  number 
required  is  accurately  known.  The  accommodation 
offered  would  be  by  no  means  luxurious,  but  the 
opportunity  would  be  given  the  third-class  traveller  of 
avoiding,  by  the  payment  of  a  supplement,  the  utter 
misery  which  he  now  endures  on  a  long  night  journey 
unless  he  can  secure  the  whole  of  one  side  of  a  carriage 
for  himself. 

Since  wood,  as  a  rule,  enters  largely  into  the  com- 
position of  railway  carriages,  the  possibility  always 
exists  of  their  catching  fire.  So  small  a  thing  as  a  hot 
axle,  or  even  a  spark  from  the  engine,  might  start  a 
fire,  and,  when  an  accident  takes  place,  an  escape  of 
the  compressed  gas  carried  for  lighting  or  for  cooking 
purposes,  or  a  live  coal  from  the  furnace  of  the  engine, 
may  produce  the  most  serious  consequences.  Indeed, 
the  risk  of  fire  is,  perhaps,  the  chief  thing  to  fear  when 
;i  n  accident  happens.  For  these  reasons  it  is  important 
to  construct  the  carriages  of  uninfiainrnable  materials, 
and  it  is  possible  that  in  a  few  years'  time  it  will  be  the 
ordinary  practice  to  make  the  sides  and  roofs  and  as 
many  of  the  other  parts  as  possible  out  of  steel ;  this 
material,  besides  being  uninflammable,  makes  very 
stiff  and  strong  carriage  bodies,  which  offer  great 
resistance  to  telescoping.  In  America,  where  fires  are 
much  more  common  than  in  Europe,  and  where  the 
railway  carriages  are  often  so  difficult  to  escape  from 
as  to  be  perfect  death  traps,  the  use  of  steel  bodies  has 


52         RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

made  more  progress  than  here,  but  the  accident  which 
took  place  not  very  long  ago  near  Hawes  Junction,  and 
the  more  recent  accident  at  Ditton  Junction,  in  each 
of  which  several  people  were  burnt  to  cinders,  drew 
attention  sharply  to  the  importance  of  making  British 
railway  carriages  as  little  as  possible  liable  to  catch 
fire.  At  the  same  time  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that, 
even  if  the  bodies  of  passenger  vehicles  were  constructed 
entirely  of  steel,  it  would  be  practically  impossible  to 
exclude  all  inflammable  materials  from  the  inside 
fittings,  and  even  the  clothes  and  hand- luggage  of  the 
passengers  might,  under  certain  circumstances,  produce 
smoke,  which  would  asphyxiate  persons  who  were 
trapped  in  a  carriage.  Under  such  circumstances  the 
fact  that  the  carriages  were  constructed  of  steel,  which 
is  much  more  difficult  to  break  through  than  wood, 
might  quite  possibly  make  the  results  of  an  accident 
worse  rather  than  better.  The  whole  question,  indeed, 
of  providing  an  easy  means  of  escape  from  railway 
carriages  after  an  accident  has  taken  place  is  of  great 
importance.  On  main  line  journeys,  when  stops  are 
infrequent  and  of  some  duration,  doors  at  either  end 
of  corridor  carriages  are  sufficient  for  normal  require- 
ments, but  may  be  quite  insufficient  in  case  of  an  acci- 
dent, and  must  be  supplemented  by  other  means  of 
exit.  In  this  country,  therefore,  corridor  carriages  are 
generally  given  the  same  number  of  doors  as  ordinary 
compartment  carriages.  An  objection  to  doors  as 
emergency  exits  is  that  when  an  accident  takes  place 
it  may  easily  happen  that  they  become  jammed,  so  that 
it  is  impossible  to  open  them.  Some  dozen  years  ago 
the  question  was  carefully  gone  into  by  the  Prussian 
State  Railways,  in  consequence  of  a  serious  accident 


THE  EAST  COAST  53 

which  had  taken  place  on  one  of  their  lines,  and  it 
was  decided  that  the  safest  plan  was  to  retain  the 
arrangement  of  doors  at  the  ends  only,  but  to  make  the 
windows  very  large  and  easy  to  open,  and  to  provide 
suitable  hand-holds  and  foot-holds  so  as  to  enable  the 
passengers,  if  necessary,  to  escape  by  the  windows. 

In  suburban  trains,  besides  the  question  of  safety, 
that  of  filling  and  emptying  the  carriages  in  the  shortest 
time  is  of  importance.  If  the  passengers  could  be 
prevailed  upon  always  to  enter  the  carriage  at  one  end 
and  to  leave  it  at  the  other,  and  if  a  central  passage 
could  always  be  kept  clear,  doors  at  either  end  would, 
no  doubt,  be  a  good  and  sufficient  arrangement.  As, 
however,  these  conditions  appear  to  be  unattainable,  it 
is  not  surprising  to  find  that  the  ordinary  arrangement 
of  side  doors  is  usually  retained  for  suburban  trains. 

Accidents  have  been  known  to  occur  through  a 
wheel  working  loose  upon  its  axle.  A  wheel  is  secured 
upon  its  axle  by  having  its  centre  bored  out  to  a  dia- 
meter very  slightly  less  than  that  of  the  axle,  which  is 
then  forced  on  by  hydraulic  pressure.  This  pressure 
should  amount  to  something  like  eighty  tons.  If  the 
axle  is  a  little  too  small,  or  the  hole  in  the  wheel  a  little 
too  big,  the  pressure  required  to  force  the  axle  into  the 
wheel  is  not  great  enough,  and  it  may  possibly  work 
loose  in  service.  In  some  carriage  shops,  therefore, 
a  machine  is  used  which  automatically  records  the 
pressure  exerted,  and  this  makes  it  almost  impossible 
for  an  insecurely  fastened  wheel  to  be  put  into  service. 

Another  most  important  machine  in  the  carriage 
shops,  tending  this  time  to  ensure  the  comfort  of  the 
passenger,  is  one  in  which  the  carriage  wheels  are 
revolved  to  ascertain  whether  they  are  properly 


54          RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

balanced.  If  they  are  found  to  be  in  any  way  defec- 
tive, a  metal  plate  of  the  required  weight  to  effect  the 
proper  balance  is  fastened  on  to  the  inside  of  the  wheel. 
Quite  a  small  departure  from  the  proper  balance  has  a 
very  bad  effect  upon  the  running  of  a  wheel,  causing  it 
to  tend  to  swing  backwards  and  forwards  in  the  axle- 
box  guides. 

The  cleaning  of  the  carriages,  which  is  a  serious 
business,  is,  in  large  centres,  often  done  largely  by 
means  of  a  vacuum  cleaner.  There  is  a  large  central 
installation  where  the  vacuum  is  maintained,  and  from 
here  led  by  pipes  wherever  a  vacuum  is  required  for 
cleaning  purposes.  If  there  are  building  or  repairing 
shops  near  by,  the  same  vacuum  can  often  be  made  use 
of  in  them  for  a  variety  of  other  purposes. 

The  lighting  of  railway  carriages  has  always  been 
rather  a  difficult  problem.  For  a  long  time  no  serious 
attempt  was  made  to  provide  more  light  than  was 
enough  to  differentiate  light  from  darkness.  Anything 
like  reading  by  the  exiguous  rays  of  the  candles  origi- 
nally provided  was,  of  course,  out  of  the  question, 
and  the  dirty  oil  lamps,  which  lasted  for  so  long,  were 
almost  equally  devoid  of  any  real  utility.  These  were 
the  dark  days  of  railway  travelling.  Since  then, 
although  the  difficulty  in  the  way  of  giving  each  pas- 
senger light  enough  to  read  by,  and  at  the  same  time 
providing  general  illumination  for  a  whole  compart- 
ment has  not  yet  been  quite  satisfactorily  overcome, 
really  serious  attempts  to  solve  the  lighting  problem 
have  been  made.  For  some  time  now  the  competition 
has  been  between  gas  and  electricity,  and,  so  far,  the 
race  has  been  very  even,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say 
which  iljuminant  will  in  the  end  secure  the  preference. 


THE  EAST  COAST  55 

First  gas  got  the  start,  then  electricity  made  greater 
progress,  then  improved  incandescent  mantles  gave  a 
fresh  impetus  to  gas,  while  more  perfect  electrical 
appliances  were  being  evolved  by  the  electricians. 
Where  electric  light  is  used  as  few  heavy  accumulators 
as  possible  have  to  be  carried,  so,  while  they  are  in- 
dispensable for  providing  electricity  as  long  as  the  train 
is  standing  still,  the  current  required  is  procured  from 
a  dynamo  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  train  starts. 
The  dynamo  is  driven  from  one  of  the  carriage  axles 
by  means  of  a  belt.  Whatever  may  be  the  pace  of  the 
train,  the  current  required  for  the  lamps  is  the  same, 
and  so  a  good  deal  of  ingenuity  is  necessary  to  arrange 
for  regulating  devices,  which  will  ensure  that  the  proper 
supply  shall  always  reach  the  lamps,  and  this  without 
wasting  more  energy  than  is  absolutely  necessary,  for 
all  the  power  has  to  come  from  the  engine,  and,  if  it  is 
wastefully  used,  there  is  unnecessary  expense.  A  draw- 
back of  electricity  is  that,  in  case  of  fog,  when  the  trains 
may  have  to  crawl  along  for  hours  together,  the  accumu- 
lators may  give  out,  and  there  is  then  no  opportunity 
of  re-charging  them  from  the  dynamo,  so  that  the 
light  may  fail  altogether.  Gas  possesses  an  advantage 
over  electricity  in  that  a  supply  is  taken  in  before  the 
train  starts,  and  it  has  not  to  be  made  en  route.  It  is 
generally  manufactured  by  the  railway  company  at  a 
special  gasworks,  and  is  stored  in  cylindrical  holders 
underneath  the  carriages,  which,  as  it  is  compressed  to  a 
high  pressure,  can  hold  a  large  supply.  From  the 
cylindrical  holders  it  is  led  at  a  reduced  pressure  to  the 
burners,  where  the  now  generally  used  inverted  in- 
candescent mantles  enable  a  very  small  amount  of  gas 
to  give  forth  an  extremely  bright  light,  and  one  which, 


56          EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

unlike  electricity,  has  no  need  of  being  nicely  regulated 
to  counteract  variations  in  the  speed  of  the  train. 

Where  a  number  of  carriages  are  always  coupled 
together,  the  electric  lighting  arrangements  may  be 
simplified  by  generating  and  storing  the  electricity  on 
one  carriage  only,  but  any  carriage,  which  is  liable  to 
be  detached  from  the  others,  must  have  sufficient- 
storage  capacity  to  last  at  least  till  it  can  receive  a 
fresh  supply.  In  connection  with  carriage  lighting  the 
ever-present  danger  of  fire  has  to  be  carefully  con- 
sidered ;  in  this  respect,  electricity,  though  certainly 
not  entirely  safe,  possesses  advantages  over  gas,  an 
escape  of  which,  when  an  accident  takes  place,  is  too 
frequently  the  cause  of  a  fire.  Something  can,  how- 
ever, be  done  to  minimise  the  danger  from  gas  by 
fixing  the  gas  cylinders  as  closely  as  possible  under  the 
frames,  where  they  get  the  greatest  amount  of  pro- 
tection, and  by  arranging  valves,  which  automatically 
cut  off  the  supply  of  gas  when  the  pipes  get  broken. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND 

Midland  Railway — The  Engines  of  the  Midland  Railway — Railway 
Geography — Great  Central  Railway — Lancashire  and  Yorkshire 
Railway — Goods  Wagons — Goods  Station  at  Leeds— Train  Control 
— Toton — Multifarious  activities  of  Railways — Standardisation — 
Rates  and  Fares — Clearing  House — Canals. 

THE  Midland,  unlike  almost  all  the  other  railways 
which  have  their  termini  in  London,  does  not  regard 
the  Metropolis  as  its  headquarters.  Its  London  ex- 
tension was  only  an  afterthought,  and,  important  as 
its  traffic  on  that  and  other  extensions  now  is,  the 
principal  activities  of  the  Midland  are  devoted  to  its 
interests  in  the  centre  of  England.  Its  headquarters 
are  at  Derby,  which  is  almost  the  geographical  centre 
of  the  system,  and  it  is  upon  the  centre  of  England 
that  all  its  chief  lines  converge.  But,  if  the  central 
part  of  its  territory  is  its  special  care,  there  is  no  rail- 
way in  England  which  has  shown  so  much  enterprise 
in  reaching  put  towards  parts  of  the  country  remote 
from  its  centre.  Outside  the  central  area,  the  Midland 
has  its  own  lines  to  London,  Manchester,  Bristol, 
Carlisle,  and  Heysham,  and  by  means  of  joint  railways 
or  running  powers  can  run  its  trains  to  Cromer  and 
Yarmouth  on  the  east  coast,  to  Bournemouth  on  the 
south  coast,  to  various  points  on  the  Bristol  Channel, 
to  Liverpool,  and  to  Stranraer  in  Scotland.  A  few 


58          RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

years  ago  also  the  Midland  bought  the  Belfast  and 
Northern  Counties  Railway,  so  that  it  possesses  several 
hundred  miles  of  railway  in  Ireland. 

The  Midland  has  lately  expanded  in  a  fresh  direc- 
tion by  absorbing  the  London,  Tilbury  and  Southern! 
Railway.  The  Tilbury  was  a  prosperous  little  line, 
occupying  a  corner  of  what  the  Great  Eastern  pro- 
bably always  regarded  as  its  own  district,  making  use  of 
that  company's  terminus  at  Fenchurch  Street,  and  work- 
ing generally  in  harmony  with  it.  It  can  have  been  with 
no  very  pleasurable  feelings  that  the  Great  Eastern 
learned  of  the  contemplated  incursion  of  the  Midland 
into  this  new  district,  an  incursion  which  shows  that, 
though  the  principle  of  territorial  aggression  between 
railway  companies  has  generally  been  abandoned, 
there  may  still  be  cases  in  which  some  company  or 
other  finds  its  practice  advantageous,  and  that  the  new 
grouping  of  the  companies  cannot  be  expected  to 
leave  each  group  with  the  undisputed  supremacy  of 
the  whole  of  its  own  district.  The  Midland  has  ex- 
panded in  so  many  unexpected  directions  that  it  is 
impossible  to  be  sure  what  it  will  do  next.  There  are 
many  things  less  likely  than  that  it  will  renew  an 
attempt  previously  made  to  absorb  the  Glasgow  and 
South  Western  Railway,  and  thus  secure  a  line  of  its 
own  the  whole  way  from  London  to  Glasgow.  After 
this,  there  would  still  remain  the  north-east  and 
south-east  of  England  in  which  to  secure  a  footing. 
In  the  north-east  the  North  Eastern  Railway's  posi- 
tion is  probably  impregnable,  but  the  eventual 
absorption  by  the  Midland  of  the  South  Eastern 
or  the  Brighton,  although  a  far  greater  undertaking 
than  it  has  yet  carried  through,  does  not  seem 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   59 

entirely  out  of  the  question.  Now  that  there  is  a 
possibility  that  coal  may  be  worked  in  Kent  on  a  large 
scale,  there  would  be  a  certain  fitness  in  the  transport 
of  that  commodity's  being  undertaken  by  the  greatest 
of  all  the  coal-carrying  lines. 

Great  Britain  does  not  lend  itself  to  a  neat  scheme 
of  railways.  A  long,  straggling  country  with  the 
capital  near  one  corner,  the  most  populous  centres 
scattered  irregularly  about,  and  a  high  ridge  of  hills 
dividing  the  two  most  important  manufacturing  dis- 
tricts, presents  a  combination  of  conditions  which 
would  make  it  difficult  to  plan  a  really  economical 
scheme  of  lines,  even  if  we  now  had  to  begin  again 
from  the  beginning.  As  it  was,  no  attempt  was  made 
to  plan  the  railways  as  a  whole,  as  was  done  in  France. 
The  population  of  innumerable  towns  was  so  large 
that  it  appeared  profitable  to  build  purely  local  lines, 
many  of  which  could  have  been  improved,  or  dispensed 
with  altogether,  if  British  railways  had  from  the 
beginning  been  planned  with  a  view  to  the  service  of 
the  country  as  a  whole.  Added  to  this,  there  was 
the  rather  vague  idea  that  railways  should  be  made 
to  compete  with  one  another,  and  the  consequence 
is  that  in  many  cases  two  or  more  lines  exist  between 
points  which  could  be  served  by  one.  The  principal 
lines  of  the  Midland  follow  rather  nearly  the  direc- 
tions which,  perhaps,  many  of  the  ideal  lines  would 
take.  If  it  were  possible  to  rearrange  the  railways  it 
is  pretty  clear  that  London  should  not  be,  as  it  now 
is,  the  principal  centre.  This  would  have  to  be  removed 
to  some  place  in  the  centre  of  England,  through  which 
the  greater  number  of  the  chief  main  lines  would  pass. 
It  should  be  in  some  unoccupied  spot,  where  it  would 


60         RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

be  possible  to  construct  one  huge  junction,  which 
could  be  approached  from  all  sides.  The  most  suit- 
able spot  would  appear  to  be  somewhere  a  little  south 
of  Derby ;  this  would  be  an  excellent  point  of  inter- 
section for  the  two  principal  lines,  which  would  replace 
the  existing  south  to  north  lines.  One  of  these  lines 
would  start  from  London,  and,  skirting  the  southern 
slopes  of  the  Pennine  chain,  pass  close  to  Manchester, 
and,  from  about  Preston,  continue  to  Glasgow  along 
the  present  West  Coast  route.  The  other  would  start 
at  Plymouth,  and,  passing  Exeter,  Bristol,  Birming- 
ham, Sheffield,  and  Leeds,  join  the  present  East  Coast 
route  about  Darlington,  and  continue  thence  as  at 
present  to  Edinburgh.  A  third  main  line,  intersecting 
the  others  at  the  central  junction,  would  run  from 
Holyhead  to  Yarmouth.  Two  or  three  lines  across 
the  Pennine  chain  would  connect  the  manufacturing 
districts  on  either  side  of  it,  and  a  line  from  Cardiff 
along  the  right  bank  of  the  Severn  would  join  the 
Plymouth-Edinburgh  line  about  halfway  between 
Bristol  and  Birmingham.  There  would  be  main  lines 
from  London  to  Norwich,  Dover,  Brighton,  and 
Bournemouth,  very  much  as  at  present,  and  one  main 
line  from  London  to  the  west,  taking  the  same  course 
as  the  direct  Great  Western  line  now  takes,  but  with 
a  branch  from  somewhere  about  Devizes  to  Bath, 
Bristol,  and  the  Severn  Tunnel.  Some  such  scheme 
would  greatly  reduce  the  length  of  main  line 
required,  and  at  the  same  time  leave  the  distances 
between  the  principal  cities  much  as  they  now  axe. 
But  these  are  vain  speculations,  and,  even  if  we  cannot 
but  think  that  the  national  energy  might  have  been 
better  spent  than  in  providing,  say,  the  three  different 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   61 

routes  which  exist  between  London  and  Sheffield,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  any  of  them  suffer  acutely  from 
want  of  traffic,  or  are  in  danger  of  becoming  derelict. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  central  district  of  the 
Midland  is  so  full  of  junctions,  and  contains  so  many 
big  towns,  that,  even  on  the  main  line,  there  are  a 
considerable  number  of  obstacles  to  rapid  progress, 
but  away  from  this  district  some  of  the  principal  lines 
were  built  later,  and  more  with  a  view  to  express 
through  traffic.  The  gradients,  however,  of  most  of 
the  principal  Midland  lines  are  steeper  than  the  average 
in  Great  Britain.  This  is  particularly  the  case  with 
the  line  from  Derby  to  Manchester,  where  there  is 
a  good  deal  of  1  in  90,  and  from  Leeds  to  Carlisle,  where 
there  are  long  stretches  of  1  in  100,  and  the  summit 
of  the  line  is  1167  ft.  above  the  sea.  It  is,  therefore, 
only  on  the  London  main  lines,  south  of  Trent  or 
Nottingham,  that  many  trains  are  timed  at  more  than 
50  miles  an  hour.  On  these  sections  a  good  many  of 
the  best  trains  reach  56  miles  an  hour,  start  to  stop  ; 
although  speeds  very  much  higher  than  this  could  be 
achieved  without  difficulty  over  almost  any  of  the 
principal  British  main  lines,  there  is  in  point  of  fact 
but  little  locomotive  work  in  the  country  which  with 
regard  to  speed  over  moderately  hard  gradients  is 
superior  to  that  of  the  engines  which  work  these  trains. 

Like  so  many  other  companies,  the  Midland  has 
lately  given  much  attention  to  superheating  in  loco- 
motives. It  was  not  among  the  first  to  take  up  this 
question  seriously,  possibly  owing  to  the  great  success 
achieved  with  the  3-cylinder  compounds  ;  but,  now 
that  the  Midland  authorities  have  convinced  them- 
selves of  the  value  of  superheating,  they  are  applying 


62          RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

it — to  the  passenger  engines  at  least — on  a  large  scale. 
It  is  now  a  long  time  since  any  really  new  design  of 
engine  has  been  produced  by  the  Midland.  The  first 
compound  started  work  quite  ten  years  ago,  and  about 
the  same  time  the  Belpaire  fire-box  was  adopted  for 
simple  express  engines,  but  since  then,  except  for  the 
adoption  of  superheaters,  any  developments  that  have 
taken  place  have  been  in  the  nature  of  modifications 
in  details.  With  the  adoption  of  the  superheater,  the 
Midland  has  still  abstained  from  bringing  out  a  com- 
pletely new  design  of  engine,  but,  having  on  hand  a 
large  number  of  engines  well  suited  for  being  rebuilt 
with  superheaters,  is  now  in  process  of  adapting  them 
to  one  standard  with  so  many  changes  from  the  original 
designs — even  the  frames  are  new — as  to  make  of  them 
practically  a  new  class  of  engine. 

The  object  of  all  superheaters  is  first  to  dry,  and 
then  to  raise  the  temperature  of,  the  steam  on  its  way 
from  the  boiler  to  the  cylinders.  So  long  as  steam  is 
in  contact  with  water,  its  temperature  cannot  rise  above 
that  of  the  water,  and  it  is  always  heavily  charged 
with  minute  drops.  If,  after  being  led  away  from 
'•'jiitcid  with  the  water,  it  is  further  heated,  the  drops; 
are  all  turned  into  steam,  and  the  dry  steam  itself 
quickly  increases  in  volume,  and  becomes  a  far  inure 
active  and  rapidly  moving  fluid,  and  a  much  worse 
conductor  of  heat,  than  in  its  wet  condition.  There 
are  different  kinds  of  superheaters,  some  being  designed 
to  raise  the  temperature  of  the  steam  much  higher 
than  others.  They  generally  consist  of  small  pipes 
placed  inside  some  of  the  boiler  tubes,  which  are 
specially  enlarged  for  the  purpose,  and  through  which, 
when  steam  is  shut  off,  the  draught  is  checked  by 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   63 

means  of  specially  arranged  dampers  ;  through  these 
small  pipes  the  steam  is  led  on  its  way  from  the  boiler 
to  the  cylinders.  The  Schmidt  superheater,  which  is 
one  of  those  which  greatly  raise  the  temperature  of  the 
steam — up  to  700  degrees  Fahrenheit — is  the  pattern 
most  widely  used.  This  superheater  is  employed  by 
the  Midland,  but  the  superheater  tubes  are  fitted  on 
to  the  header  by  means  of  a  new  and  simplified  attach- 
ment designed  at  Derby,  and  there  is  an  ingenious 
arrangement,  also  of  Derby  origin,  for  securing  the 
full  benefit  of  the  superheater  when  the  engine  is 
working  a  stopping  train.  A  system  of  valves,  placed 
on  the  side  of  the  smoke-box,  prevents  the  super- 
heater from  getting  cold  during  stops,  and  prevents  it, 
at  the  same  time,  from  getting  too  hot  while  there  is 
no  steam  in  it  to  carry  off  the  heat. 

The  advantage  to  be  obtained  from  the  use  of 
superheaters  is  no  longer  in  doubt.  (If  the  efficiency 
of  an  ordinary  simple  engine,  without  a  superheater, 
or  feed- water  heating,  is  taken  to  be  100,  the  Midland 
calculates  that  a  compound  has  an  efficiency  of  about 
107,  and  a  superheater  engine  an  efficiency  of  about 
1±-V)  BUD  there  is  a  good  deal  of  doubt  as  to  the  pre- 
cise behaviour  of  superheated  steam,  and  why  it  shoe's 
all  its  unquestioned  economy.  The  principal  reason, 
indeed,  for  the  economy  shown  is,  no  doubt,  that 
when  steam  has  once  reached  the  point  of  being  abso- 
lutely dry,  a  comparatively  small  addition  of  heat 
produces  a  comparatively  large  increase  in  volume. 
But,  beyond  this,  the  part  played  by  the  greater  light- 
ness and  fluidity,  and  the  smaller  conductivity  of  heat 
of  superheated,  as  compared  with  saturated,  steam, 
is  at  present  little  understood.  The  Midland  has 


64         RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

given  one  of  the  rebuilt  engines  cylinders  of  the  same 
diameter  as  are  given  to  engines  working  with  saturated 
steam,  so  as  to  make  possible  strictly  comparative 
trials,  which,  it  is  hoped,  may  throw  light  on  the 
questions  which  are  now  obscure. 

Though  the  superheaters  and  the  compounds  are 
now  the  most  powerful  express  engines  on  the  Midland, 
they  are  not  yet  sufficiently  numerous  to  work  all  the 
best  trains,  with  which,  therefore,  other  classes  of 
engines  take  their  turn.  On  a  journey  which  I  recently 
made  with  the  1  p.m.  luncheon  car  train  from  Leeds, 
the  train  was  hauled  throughout  by  ordinary  simple 
engines  without  superheaters.  These  engines — of  the 
770  class,  with  Belpaire  fire-boxes  and  driving  wheels 
6  ft.  9  in.  in  diameter — are,  nevertheless,  large  and 
powerful  machines,  and  admirable  specimens  of  what 
was  very  nearly  the  last  word  in  the  designing  of  that 
type  of  4-4-0  engine,  into  which  no  special  device 
for  economising  heat  was  introduced.  On  the  day  on 
which  my  journey  was  made  it  happened  that  an  ex- 
ceedingly strong  wind  from  the  east  was  blowing  across 
the  line  all  the  way,  so  that  the  engines  were  obliged 
to  work  much  harder  than  would  otherwise  have  been 
necessary.  Starting  from  Leeds,  No.  735  had  297  tons, 
exclusive  of  passengers  and  luggage,  say  320  tons  all 
told,  behind  the  tender,  and,  though  the  line  is  fairly 
level,  she  had  to  work  hard  to  reach  Masboro' — nearly 
34  miles — in  45  mins.  50  sees.,  with  a  signal  stop  near 
the  end  of  the  run.  From  Masboro'  the  first  part  of 
the  train  goes  forward  to  follow  a  devious  route  via 
Sheffield  and  Nottingham,  and  eventually  to  reach 
St.  Pancras  at  5.25  p.m.  ;  and  another  engine  backs 
on  to  the  remainder  of  the  train  to  haul  it  the  162 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   65 

miles  to  St.  Pancras — via  the  direct  line,  which  avoids 
Sheffield  and  passes  through  Leicester — in  177  mins., 
without  a  stop.  The  new  engine  turned  out  to  be 
No.  729,  of  the  same  class  as  No.  735,  and  the 
weight  of  the  train  was  now  reduced  to  160  tons, 
say  170  tons  with  passengers  and  luggage.  As 
before  remarked,  the  Midland  between  Leeds  and 
Trent  is  not  a  favourable  line  for  really  fast  running, 
and,  what  with  crossing  over  from  one  line  to  another 
before  Chesterfield,  the  service  slack  at  Clay  Cross,  an 
extra  slack  at  Toton,  and  the  service  slack  at  Trent, 
the  42  miles  to  passing  the  last-named  place  occupied 
exactly  50  minutes.  After  Trent  we  were  able  to  push 
ahead  a  little  on  the  nearly  level  stretch  to  Leicester, 
in  the  course  of  which  we  passed  over  the  first  water- 
troughs  which  we  had  encountered;  here,  by  a  few  turns 
of  a  lever,  the  driver  let  down  the  tender  scoop,  and 
in  a  few  seconds  the  tender  again  contained  its  full  load 
of  water.  Shortly  after  this  a  permanent  way  slack  lost 
us  another  i  minute  or  so,  and,  as  we  had  left  Masboro' 
4  minutes  late,  we  had,  as  we  ran  slowly  through 
Leicester  station,  only  99  minutes  left  to  run  the  same 
number  of  miles.  Now,  for  an  engine  as  big  as  No.  729 
to  keep  up  an  average  speed  of  60  miles  an  hour  for 
such  a  distance,  over  a  road  no  harder  than  the  Midland, 
with  only  170  tons  behind  the  tender,  would  not,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  be  a  specially  difficult  task. 
But  to-day  the  great  strength  of  the  side  wind,  which 
was  probably  sufficient  to  make  all  the  flanges  of  the 
wheels  on  the  right-hand  side  of  the  train  grind  hard 
against  the  rail,  converted  what  would  normally  have 
been  an  easy  matter  into  something  much  more  difficult. 
Fortunately,  the  engine  was  steaming  well,  and,  in 

F 


66        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

spite  of  the  really  terrific  force  of  the  wind  wherever 
there  was  no  shelter  from  a  cutting  or  from  the  natural 
lie  of  the  country,  the  speed  kept  up  so  well  on  the 
numerous  lengths  of  rising  gradient  that,  without 
forcing  the  pace  downhill  in  any  way,  we  should  have 
arrived  just  about  punctually  at  our  destination,  if 
we  had  not  encountered  a  slack  before  Kettering, 
which,  on  a  favourable  stretch  of  downhill,  reduced 
our  speed  to  30  miles  an  hour.  As  it  was,  we  arrived 
2  minutes  late,  but,  in  spite  of  the  delays  which  we 
had  suffered,  we  had  still  saved  2  minutes  on  the  booked 
time.  The  best  work  was  done  between  Market 
Harboro'  and  Desborough,  where  the  5  miles — nearly 
all  at  1  in  132  up — were  run  in  just  5  A  minutes,  and 
up  the  long  rise  between  Bedford  and  Leagrave,  where 
the  distance  of  a  little  over  17  miles,  occupied  17  mins. 
20  sees,  (for  the  first  16  miles  from  Bedford  the  gradient 
averages  1  in  264  up).  On  both  these  ascents  the 
engine  must  almost  certainly  have  been  developing 
more  than  1000  horse-power  continuously. 

The  route  which  we  had  taken,  avoiding  Sheffield 
on  the  one  side  and  Nottingham  on  the  other,  ranks 
as  the  principal  main  line  of  the  Midland,  but  the 
short  loop  on  which  Sheffield  stands  and  the  much 
longer  one  which  passes  Nottingham,  are,  both  of  them, 
followed  by  a  large  number  of  express  trains,  and  are 
practically  equal  to  the  main  line  in  importance.  The 
fact  that  different  trains  follow  different  routes  for  a 
large  part  of  the  way  between  St.  Pancras  and  Leeds 
gives  the  main  line  of  the  Midland  a  certain  want  of 
definition  that  is  not  found  in  connection  with  the 
main  lines  of  other  companies.  This  state  of  things 
will  shortly  be  intensified  by  the  completion  of  a  loop 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   67 

running  through  Bradford  and  avoiding  Leeds.  This 
is  one  of  the  latest  enterprises  of  the  Midland.  The 
matter  has,  indeed,  been  before  the  company  for  some 
time,  and  various  schemes  have  been  proposed,  but 
now,  at  length,  the  new  works  are  being  put  in  hand. 
A  new  section  will  be  built  to  complete  an  alternative 
route  between  two  points  on  the  existing  main  line  on 
either  side  of  Leeds,  and  this  new  route  will  probably 
be  the  shortest  way  for  Midland  trains  to  reach  Carlisle 
and  Scotland. 

More  closely  connected  with  the  Midland  than  any 
other  Scottish  company  is  with  any  English  one,  the 
Glasgow  and  South  Western  Railway  forms  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  Midland  to  Glasgow.  The  Midland 
route  is  20  odd  miles  more  than  the  West  Coast  route, 
and  the  times  between  London  and  Glasgow  are  longer, 
so  that  the  West  Coast  gets  the  bulk  of  the  passengers 
travelling  all  the  way.  But  the  Midland  passes  so  many 
important  places  en  route  that  there  is  a  large  traffic 
between  Glasgow  and  intermediate  points,  like  Leeds 
and  Sheffield,  which  the  West  Coast  trains  do  not 
touch.  To  Edinburgh  the  Midland  trains  have  to 
travel  over  the  very  hard  Waverley  line  of  the  North 
British,  and  here,  in  the  same  way,  the  route  from 
London  is  longer  than  either  the  East  or  West  Coast 
routes,  and  the  trains  take  more  time.  But,  as  to 
Glasgow,  though  to  a  less  extent,  the  Midland  secures 
the  Leeds  and  Sheffield  traffic  to  Edinburgh  and 
beyond,  and  it  is  presumably  because  of  its  traffic  to 
places  beyond  Edinburgh  that  the  Midland  is  a  share- 
holder in  the  Forth  Bridge,  of  which  it  can  otherwise 
make  very  little  use. 

Of  all  the  many  railways  with  which  the  Midland 


68       EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

comes  into  contact,  there  is  none  which  it  touches  at 
a  greater  number  of  points  than  the  Great  Central. 
As  regards  the  Great  Central  itself,  hardly  any  point 
on  the  system  is  more  than  a  few  miles  away  from  the 
lines  of  some  other  company.  Its  traffic,  a  very  large 
proportion  of  which  is  mineral  traffic,  is  almost  all  to 
and  from  populous  centres,  but  it  has  at  the  same 
time  very  little  suburban  traffic  near  London.  It  is 
not  one  of  those  companies  which  were  from  the 
beginning  designed  to  run  to  London,  but  it  had  its 
origin  in  the  industrial  districts  of  the  Midlands.  As 
time  went  on  it  began  to  cast  longing  eyes  upon  the 
Metropolis,  where  such  a  small  area  promised  such 
immense  possibilities  of  profit.  It  is  now  more  than 
forty  years  since  the  Midland,  which  before  was  de- 
pendent first  on  the  North  Western  and  then  on  the 
Great  Northern  for  its  entrance  into  London,  found 
itself  obliged  to  make  a  way  for  itself  over  the  (from  a 
railway  point  of  view)  comparatively  desert  stretch 
of  country  which  separates  Bedford  from  the  Metro- 
polis. For  a  considerable  time  no  one  thought  that 
another  of  the  northern  companies  would  ever  be 
inclined  to  face  the  great  cost  that  an  extension  to 
London  would  involve ;  but  in  the  early  '90's  the 
Manchester,  Sheffield,  and  Lincolnshire  Railway,  dis- 
satisfied with  its  position,  which  made  it  hardly  more 
than  the  gathering  ground  for  traffic,  particularly  coal 
traffic,  from  which  other  companies,  to  whom  this 
traffic  had  to  be  handed  over,  secured  the  chief  profit, 
received  the  authorisation  of  Parliament  to  extend 
its  line  to  London.  In  1898  the  London  extension 
was  complete,  and  the  name  of  the  railway  was  changed 
to  "  Great  Central."  It  had  not  been  necessary  to 


RAILWAYS -OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   69 

construct  a  new  line  the  whole  way  south  of  the  old 
Manchester,  Sheffield,  and  Lincolnshire's  district,  as 
running  powers  were  secured  over  nearly  40  miles 
of  the  Metropolitan  Railway  immediately  outside  the 
London  area.  Subsequently,  however,  with  the  help 
of  the  Great  Western,  a  new  loop  was  constructed  to 
the  west  of  the  Metropolitan  line,  which  gave  the 
Great  Central  another  route  into  London.  (This  loop 
increases  the  distance  between  London  and  the  north 
by  some  4j  miles.)  So  now  the  Great  Central  has 
become  one  of  the  established  main  routes  from  the 
north  to  London,  but  not  yet  has  it  recovered  from 
the  financial  strain  which  its  extension  imposed  upon 
it.  To  effect  an  entry  into  London,  capital  had  to 
be  poured  out  like  water,  and  the  increase  of  traffic, 
which  the  new  line  brought,  has  been  very  far  from 
sufficient  to  pay  interest  on  all  that  capital.  The 
line,  however,  being  built  in  the  light  of  modern  experi- 
ence, will  be  able  to  cope  with  the  intense  traffic, 
which  it  will  one  day  be  called  upon  to  accom- 
modate, without  further  costly  improvements.  The 
rolling  stock  is  of  more  than  average  efficiency,  the 
engines  in  particular  being,  for  the  most  part,  large 
and  powerful.  The  latest  design  in  particular  is  pro- 
bably the  most  powerful  4-6-0  2-cylinder  engine  at 
present  running  on  any  line  in  Great  Britain. 

In  its  present  form  the  Great  Central  has  three 
distinct  centres,  connected  one  with  another  only  by 
the  main  line.  The  Manchester  district  is  connected 
with  the  Sheffield  district  by  the  single  pass  across 
and  through  the  Pennine  range,  and  the  latter  district 
with  the  Metropolitan  district  by  the  long  ribbon  of 
the  London  extension. 


70        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

The  Great  Central  is  by  no  means  resting  on  its 
oars,  but  is  losing  no  time  in  consolidating  its  position 
and  improving  its  prospects  in  various  ways.  Not 
long  ago  it  completed  at  Wath  a  new  sorting  yard  of 
colossal  dimensions,  where  an  immense  volume  of  coal 
traffic  is  cheaply  and  expeditiously  dealt  with,  and 
a  subsidiary  company  has  just  constructed  at  Imming- 
ham,  on  the  Humber,  a  gigantic  series  of  docks,  into 
which  will  overflow  the  traffic,  which  is  being  crowded 
out  of  Grimsby,  a  few  miles  away. 

The  Great  Central,  having  made  its  way  to  London, 
in  the  face  of  the  strongest  opposition,  did  not  take 
very  long  to  make  up  its  mind  that,  once  there,  the 
best  thing  to  do  was  to  make  close  friends  with  some 
of  its  neighbours.  The  Great  Northern  and  the  Great 
Eastern  systems,  if  joined  to  that  of  the  Great  Central, 
would  cover  the  east  of  England  between  the  Humber 
and  the  Thames  almost  as  completely  as  the  North 
Eastern  covers  the  north-eastern  corner  of  England. 
An  alliance,  therefore,  of  the  most  complete  kind  was 
projected  between  these  three  companies.  The  net 
receipts  were  to  be  divided  in  agreed  proportions,  and 
the  lines  worked  as  one  system.  The  alliance,  indeed, 
was  evidently  intended  to  amount  to  an  amalgama- 
tion of  the  three  lines,  quite  as  complete  as  the  amalga- 
mation of  the  South  Eastern  and  London,  Chatham 
and  Dover.  The  opposition,  which  the  project  en- 
countered in  and  out  of  Parliament,  caused  the  with- 
drawal of  the  bill  which  was  promoted  to  secure 
Parliamentary  sanction  for  the  amalgamation,  but  it 
seems  quite  probable  that  the  project  will  be  revived 
at  some  more  convenient  season.  Meanwhile,  the 
harmonious  co-operation  of  the  three  railways  on  a 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   71 

less  extended  scale  secures  for  them  some,  at  least, 
of  the  economies  which  amalgamation  was  intended 
to  effect. 

The  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  is  a  line  which  lends 
itself  to  comparison  with  the  Great  Central.  Very 
close  neighbours,  both  extend  from  east  to  west  across 
England,  and  each  has  an  important  eastern  and  an 
important  western  district,  which  are  joined  together 
by  a  single  pass  through  the  Pennine  Hills.  The 
Lancashire  and  Yorkshire,  however,  is  much  the  more 
compact  system,  and  less  exposed  to  possible  competi- 
tion, and  the  density  of  its  traffic  is  far  greater.  With 
a  much  shorter  mileage,  the  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire 
has,  even  now,  a  considerably  greater  paid-up  capital 
than  the  Great  Central,  and  earns  more  than  propor- 
tionally large  profits.  Indeed,  the  Lancashire  and 
Yorkshire,  with  its  network  of  lines  closely  embracing 
its  numerous  Yorkshire,  and  yet  more  numerous  Lanca- 
shire, centres,  is  in  a  thoroughly  comfortable  position, 
and  has  not  felt  impelled  to  any  such  ambitious  scheme 
as  urged  its  southern  neighbour  to  London. 

Besides  working  its  own  trains,  the  Great  Central 
provides  engines  to  work  the  trains  of  the  Cheshire 
Lines  Committee  in  those  parts  of  Lancashire  and 
Cheshire  where  the  Midland,  Great  Northern,  and 
Great  Central  have  pooled  their  interests  in  the  common 
undertaking,  known  as  the  Cheshire  Lines.  All  the 
three  companies  have  large  interests  in  both  Liverpool 
and  Manchester,  and  have  to  be  able  to  run  direct 
between  the  two  cities,  so,  instead  of  each  possessing 
its  own  line,  or  having  running  powers  over  another 
line,  the  three  companies  have  united  to  finance  and 
work  this  undertaking,  which,  besides  the  main  line 


72        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

between  Liverpool  and  Manchester,  comprises  some 
hundred  miles  of  railway  in  the  adjoining  district. 
Such  of  the  trains  which  run  over  these  lines,  there- 
fore, as  do  not  belong  to  one  or  other  of  the  owning 
companies,  are  the  property  of  the  Committee  which 
consists  of  nine  members — three  of  the  directors  of 
each  of  the  three  companies — and  the  working  is 
mostly  entrusted  to  Great  Central  engines. 

Of  the  three  routes — North  Western,  Cheshire 
Lines,  and  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire — between  Liver- 
pool and  Manchester,  that  of  the  Lancashire  and 
Yorkshire  is  appreciably  the  longest,  so  for  the  com- 
pany to  run  its  trains,  as  it  does,  in  the  same  time 
as  its  competitors,  necessitates  work  which  is  of  more 
than  average  merit.  All  the  best  trains  cover  the 
distance  of  nearly  37  miles,  which  separates  Liverpool 
from  Manchester,  in  40  minutes,  and,  as  there  are 
plenty  of  steep  uphill  bits,  quite  long  enough  seriously 
to  reduce  the  speed,  this  involves  fairly  good  work  on 
the  part  of  the  locomotives.  But  there  is  no  railway 
company  that  has  engines  capable  of  giving  a  better 
account  of  themselves  than  the  Lancashire  and  York- 
shire. The  company  is  fortunate  in  having  had  the 
services  of  a  series  of  chief  mechanical  engineers  of 
great  enterprise  and  originality,  and  new  ideas  have 
always  received  a  warm  welcome  at  the  locomotive 
works  at  Horwich.  Twelve  or  fourteen  years  ago, 
when  the  desirability  became  apparent  of  building 
engines  of  much  greater  size  than  had  up  to  that  time 
been  usual,  the  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  was  one  of 
the  first  to  adopt  the  4-4-2  type,  and  at  the  present 
time  the  company's  newest  express  engines  with  4 
cylinders  and  6  coupled  wheels  are  almost  the  most 


EAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   73 

powerful  type  at  work  in  England.  Among  numerous 
experiments  tending  to  the  improvement  of  locomo- 
tives, the  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire  engineers  have 
devoted  considerable  attention  to  the  question  of  fire- 
boxes. They  were  among  the  first  definitely  to  adopt 
the  Belpaire  fire-box,  and  they  have  made  trials  of  a 
cylindrical  fire-box,  which,  if  it  could  be  generally 
adopted,  would  offer  great  advantages  in  the  way  of 
cheapness  and  durability. 

The  fire-box,  the  most  important  part  of  the  boiler, 
is,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  part  which  is  exposed 
to  the  greatest  wear  and  tear,  and  which  is  obliged  to 
submit  to  the  greatest  strains.  The  great  and  sudden 
changes  of  temperature,  to  which  fire-boxes  are  subject, 
cause  equally  great  and  sudden  expansion  and  con- 
traction, and,  as  the  fire-box  and  the  ends  of  the  tubes 
nearest  the  fire-box  are  the  only  parts  of  the  boiler 
which  are  exposed  to  these  rapid  changes  of  temperature, 
there  is  no  corresponding  expansion  and  contraction 
of  the  rest  of  the  boiler  to  mitigate  their  effects.  The 
fire-box  itself  is,  in  England,  always  made  of  copper, 
because  copper  is  much  softer  and  less  rigid  than  steel. 
These  qualities  are,  if  anything,  more  necessary  in  the 
tube-plate  then  elsewhere,  as  the  tube-plate  is  subject 
to  the  thrust  of  all  the  highly  heated  tubes,  and  if  it 
does  not  yield  to  this  thrust  the  tubes  are  bound  to  leak 
—one  of  the  most  common  and  most  tiresome  defects 
in  a  locomotive.  Very  rigid  are  the  curved  outer 
shells,  which  contain  fire-boxes  of  the  ordinary  type, 
and  for  a  long  time  it  has  been  recognised  that  some- 
thing should  be  done  to  provide  greater  elasticity. 
One  of  the  principal  advantages  of  the  Belpaire  fire- 
box is  the  fact  that  the  top  of  the  outer  shell  is  flat, 


74        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

and,  therefore,  more  yielding  than  the  older  curved 
design.  But  with  the  increase  in  the  size  of  engines, 
and  in  the  pressure  of  the  steam,  more  radical  remedies 
are  required  for  overcoming  the  defects  of  fire-boxes. 
In  France  the  Chemin  de  fer  du  Nord  sought  a  remedy 
in  the  use  of  a  fire-box  with  walls  composed  of  series 
of  water  tubes.  This  fire-box  was  much  stronger  in 
form  and  much  freer  to  expand  and  contract  than  an 
ordinary  fire-box.  The  water  circulated  from  the 
barrel  of  the  boiler  to  a  drum  on  either  side  of  the 
bottom  of  the  fire-box,  and  rose  thence  through  the 
water  tubes  of  small  diameter  to  another  drum,  whence 
the  steam,  generated  on  the  passage  of  the  water  through 
the  tubes,  entered  the  barrel  of  the  boiler.  But  this 
experiment  has  now  been  abandoned  on  account  of 
the  complication  of  the  arrangement.  In  America  an 
arrangement  is  being  tried,  whereby  the  ordinary 
system  of  stays  screwed  through  both  fire-box  and 
fire-box  shell  is  superseded  by  a  system  of  parallel 
steel  plates,  forming  sort  of  ribs,  and  to  these,  inside 
and  out,  are  ri vetted  steel  channels,  which  form  both 
the  fire-box  and  the  fire-box  shell. 

The  careful  thought  which  the  Lancashire  and  York- 
shire devotes  to  its  steam  locomotives  has  not  in  any 
way  diverted  the  company's  attention  from  the  ques- 
tion of  electric  traction.  The  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire 
was  the  first  company  to  electrify  a  length  of  standard 
railway,  which  had  before  been  worked  by  steam  loco- 
motives. The  Liverpool  to  Southport  line  has  now 
been  worked  by  electricity  for  a  considerable  number 
of  years ;  a  very  frequent  service  is  carried  on  along 
it  with  regularity  and  efficiency,  and  the  company's 
engineers  have  secured  first-hand  experience  of  electric 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   75 

working,  which  will  be  most  valuable  now  that  the 
question  of  further  electrification  of  the  railways  in 
the  populous  part  of  Lancashire  has  come  so  much  to 
the  fore. 

In  the  south  of  England  the  railways  depend  for 
their  profits  chiefly  upon  the  passenger  traffic — nearly 
three-quarters  of  the  incomes  of  the  South  Eastern 
and  Brighton  Railways  come  from  passengers,  and 
much  more  than  half  that  of  the  South  Western.  Near 
the  other  end  of  the  scale  come  the  lines,  which  serve 
the  coalfields  and  industrial  districts  of  the  Midlands 
and  north  of  England,  for  which  the  relative  impor- 
tance of  the  goods  and  passenger  traffic  is  reversed. 
The  Midland  gets  less  than  a  third  of  its  receipts  from 
passengers,  and  the  same  is  the  case  with  the  Great 
Central. 

In  working  the  goods  traffic  a  compromise  is  neces- 
sary between  the  interests  of  the  railways  and  of  their 
customers.  The  railways  like  full  train  loads  of  fully 
loaded  vehicles,  their  customers  like  their  consign- 
ments to  be  delivered  with  as  little  delay  as  possible. 
These  two  aims  are  often  incompatible  with  one 
another.  It  may  take  a  long  time  to  collect  enough 
goods  to  load  a  vehicle  fully,  and  a  still  longer  time 
before  there  are  enough  fully  loaded  vehicles  to  make 
up  a  train  for  any  given  destination. 

The  4- wheel  wagons,  which  are  almost  exclu- 
sively used  for  goods  traffic  in  this  country,  cannot 
carry  a  very  large  weight  of  goods  in  comparison  either 
with  their  own  dead  weight  or  with  the  space  which 
they  occupy  in  the  sidings  and  goods  stations.  It  is 
possible  to  construct  vehicles  much  more  economical 
in  both  these  respects.  But  in  Great  Britain  the 


76        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BKITAIN 

consignees  insist  upon  so  much  of  the  goods  traffic 
being  delivered  without  delay  that  it  is  found  more 
convenient  to  transport  all  sorts  of  general  merchan- 
dise in  vehicles  of  small  capacity.  No  doubt  there  are 
many  cases  where  full  loads  could  be  secured  regularly 
for  vehicles  of  much  larger  size  than  those  in  actual 
use,  but,  although  employment  might  be  found  for  a 
certain  number  of  such  vehicles,  so  many  cases  would 
still  arise,  where  the  small  4-wheel  wagons  were  big 
enough,  that  these  would  have  to  be  used  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  bigger  wagons,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
so  much  expense  would  be  incurred  in  adapting  the 
goods  stations  for  the  reception  of  the  big  wagons  that 
it  is  quite  doubtful  whether  any  economy  would  result 
from  their  use.  For  general  merchandise,  indeed,  it 
very  often  happens  that  the  4-wheel  wagons,  far  from 
being  too  small,  are  much  too  big,  and  one  loaded  up 
to  its  full  capacity  is,  in  some  places,  rather  a  rare 
object.  But,  though  the  4-wheel  wagon  is  nearly 
always  amply  big  enough  for  general  goods  traffic,  the 
case  is  different  where  heavy  mineral  traffic  is  con- 
cerned. Here  there  is  some  scope  for  the  introduction 
of  the  big  wagon,  with  its  attendant  advantages  of 
greater  paying  weight  per  train,  and  greater  economy 
of  space  at  the  loading  and  unloading  stations.  Up 
to  about  the  end  of  last  century  the  small  4-wheel 
wagon  reigned  supreme  for  mineral  as  well  as  general 
goods  traffic,  but  the  comparatively  evil  days,  on 
which  the  railways  then  fell,  directed  attention  to  the 
economies  which  might  be  effected  in  the  working  of 
the  goods  and  mineral  traffic.  It  was  then  that  stricter 
attention  began  to  be  paid  to  the  loading  of  the  goods 
trains,  with  the  result  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   77 

miles  of  goods  mileage  per  annum  were  saved,  and  the 
possibility  of  using  larger  and  more  economical  vehicles 
for  suitable  classes  of  traffic  was  seriously  taken  into 
consideration.  Since  then  this  latter  reform,  though 
it  has  not  been  lost  sight  of,  has,  it  must  be  confessed, 
proceeded  rather  slowly.  But  still  some  progress  has 
been  made,  and  a  number  of  8-wheel  vehicles  of  large 
capacity  are  now  in  use  on  the  Midland,  North  Eastern, 
and  other  railways. 

All  sorts  of  unexpected  difficulties  constantly  crop 
up  when  a  new  departure  of  this  sort  is  tried.  At 
Derby  I  was  shown  a  steel  wagon,  used  for  carrying 
coal,  and  built  only  ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  the  floor 
of  which  had  wasted  away  to  the  thickness  of  half  a 
crown,  so  that  it  was  no  longer  safe  and  was  about  to 
receive  a  wooden  floor  covering.  It  appears  that  when 
it  rains  the  rain  water,  percolating  down  through  the 
coal,  absorbs  some  of  the  sulphur,  which  the  coal  con- 
tains, and  so  becomes  like  very  dilute  sulphuric  acid  and 
attacks  the  steel  floors  of  the  wagons  with  serious  results. 

The  question  of  the  employment  of  bigger  wagons 
is  a  large  one,  as  there  are  several  hundred  thousand 
mineral  wagons  in  Great  Britain,  and,  if  it  were  only 
a  matter  of  gradually  replacing  such  of  these  as  are 
engaged  on  traffic  for  which  the  wagons  of  large  capacity 
would  be  more  economical,  it  must  take  some  years  to 
solve,  particularly  as  most  of  the  mineral  wagons  do 
not  belong  to  the  railways  at  all,  but  to  private  owners, 
who  might  be  very  hard  to  convince  of  the  desira- 
bility of  the  change.  But,  besides  the  actual  replacing 
of  one  kind  of  wagon  by  another,  at  all  the  places 
throughout  the  country  where  the  wagons  are 
loaded,  unloaded,  or  manoeuvred,  modifications  must 


78        KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

also  be  introduced  for  the  accommodation  of  the  bigger 
vehicles,  and  these  modifications  would  not  be  the 
easier  to  carry  through  from  the  fact  that,  like  the 
wagons,  many  of  the  places  where  these  modifications 
would  be  necessary  do  not  belong  to  the  railways,  but 
to  private  owners. 

There  are  so  many  objections  to  the  use  of  private 
owners'  wagons,  and  so  few  advantages,  that  it  is 
difficult  to  understand  how  the  British  system  of 
allowing  private  owners  to  use  their  own  vehicles  has 
been  permitted  to  go  on.  A  private  owner's  wagon 
can  obviously  not  be  utilised  to  the  same  extent  as  a 
wagon  belonging  to  a  railway  company,  which  can 
be  sent  anywhere,  where  there  may  happen  to  be  a 
demand  for  it,  the  moment  it  is  empty,  and  although 
the  railways  no  doubt  take  great  care  to  ensure  that 
the  wagons,  which  they  accept  to  run  over  their  lines, 
are  of  proper  design  and  suitable  strength,  they  can 
hardly  exercise  the  same  degree  of  supervision  over 
them  as  over  vehicles  belonging  to  themselves.  Then, 
questions  connected  with  the  rights  of  private  owners 
to  run  their  own  vehicles  over  a  railway  may,  and 
sometimes  do,  cause  litigation,  and  other  questions, 
such  as  allegations  of  undue  preference  shown  in 
moving  vehicles  belonging  to  the  railway  before  vehicles 
belonging  to  private  owners,  can  hardly  fail  to  arise 
from  time  to  time.  Private  persons  in  the  greater 
part  of  the  North  Eastern  Railway's  district  do  not 
own  any  wagons,  and  one  or  two  other  companies, 
such  as  the  Midland,  have  made  large  purchases  from 
private  owners.  But  there  does  not  seem  to  be  much 
probability  of  the  purchase  of  private  owners'  wagons 
going  further  for  the  present. 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND      79 

The  working  of  railways  can  never  be  a  perfectly 
safe  pursuit,  and  one  of  the  most  obvious  dangers  is 
that  of  being  either  run  over  or  crushed  by  moving 
vehicles,  a  danger  to  which  those  men  who  are  engaged 
in  shunting  and  marshalling  operations  are  naturally  the 
most  exposed.  The  carelessness  bred  of  familiarityis  sure 
always  to  claim  a  certain  number  of  victims,  whatever 
safeguards  are  employed,  but  when  it  is  unnecessary 
for  the  men  to  go  in  between  the  vehicles,  the  risks 
which  they  run  are  very  greatly  diminished,  and  the 
death-roll  due  to  shunting  accidents  has  caused  special 
attention  to  be  directed  to  this  point.  The  desired 
result  may  be  effected  in  various  ways.  In  Great 
Britain  the  use  of  shunting  poles  enables  the  shunters 
to  couple  the  wagons  while  they  are  themselves  standing 
in  positions  of  safety,  where  no  moving  vehicle  can 
strike  them.  It  is  possible  to  go  further  than  this, 
and,  by  means  of  automatic  couplers,  to  arrange  that 
two  vehicles,  when  brought  together,  shall  couple  of 
themselves  without  the  intervention  of  any  outside 
agency.  This  system,  universally  used  in  the  United 
States  for  vehicles  of  every  kind,  is  not  employed  to 
any  appreciable  extent  in  Great  Britain.  Automatic 
couplers,  of  which  there  are  numerous  kinds,  consist 
essentially  of  a  large,  strong  hook,  movable  round  a 
pivot,  which,  engaging  with  a  corresponding  hook  on 
another  vehicle,  is  then  locked  in  position  by  a  special 
mechanism,  which  the  shock  of  coupling  puts  into 
action.  One  objection  to  the  use  of  automatic  couplers 
lies  in  the  difficulty  of  designing  a  coupler  which  will 
stand  the  tremendous  shocks  to  which  it  is  frequently 
subjected  in  coupling  operations.  An  automatic 
coupler  is  necessarily  a  somewhat  complicated  piece 


80       RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

of  mechanism  anyhow,  and,  to  be  really  effective, 
there  must  also  be  an  arrangement  to  enable  the 
shunters  to  unloose  it,  without  going  between  the 
vehicles,  which  makes  it  more  complicated  still.  In 
point  of  fact  automatic  couplers  are  very  liable  to  get 
out  of  order,  and  require  constant  attention  to  keep 
them  in  a  proper  state  of  repair. 

Besides  the  coupling  and  uncoupling,  which  goes 
on  during  shunting  operations,  the  brakes  have  fre- 
quently to  be  put  on  or  released,  and,  unless  the 
shunters  are  continually  to  be  running  into  danger  by 
crossing  the  rails,  it  must  be  possible  to  apply  or  release 
the  brake  from  either  side  of  a  wagon.  Obviously  it 
is  a  difficult  matter  to  provide  mechanism  which  will 
permit  of  the  brake's  being  applied  from  either  side, 
and  then,  if  necessary,  released  from  the  side  opposite 
to  that  from  which  it  has  been  applied.  The  Board 
of  Trade,  having  for  many  years,  at  more  or  less  long 
intervals,  urged  upon  the  companies  the  desirability 
of  using  all  their  endeavours  to  evolve  or  discover  such 
a  brake,  has  now  decided  to  be  satisfied  if  brake  levers 
are  fitted  on  both  sides,  without  any  arrangement  for 
releasing  the  brake  from  the  side  opposite  to  that 
from  which  it  was  applied.  This  is,  of  course,  a  great 
simplification,  though  it  is  not  a  complete  solution, 
as  it  is  often  necessary  to  release  the  brake  while  the 
vehicle  is  in  motion.  The  Great  Western  has,  how- 
ever, gone  further  than  this,  and  has  several  thousand 
wagons  fitted  with  an  apparatus,  which  allows  the  brake 
to  be  applied  or  released  from  either  side  indifferently. 
In  the  Great  Western  either-side-brake  the  brake 
levers  on  either  side  of  the  wagon  work  on  to  the  same 
shaft.  The  brake  is  applied  by  depressing  one  of  the 


EAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   81 

brake-levers,  and  held  by  a  catch,  which  engages  in 
one  of  a  series  of  teeth — in  much  the  same  way,  in 
principle,  as  with  an  ordinary  wagon  brake,  though 
the  details  are  different.  The  brake-levers  are  con- 
nected to  the  brake  rigging  by  a  loose  joint,  which 
enables  the  levers  to  be  raised  without  any  correspond- 
ing movement  of  the  rigging.  This  upward  movement 
of  the  lever  is  utilised  to  work  a  trigger,  and  the  brake 
is  released  by  the  trigger  mechanism  knocking  up 
the  catch  by  which  the  brake  is  held  on. 

One  of  the  means  adopted  of  late  years  to  secure 
the  more  economical  working  of  the  goods  traffic  has 
been  the  system  of  transferring  goods  from  one  vehicle 
to  another  at  certain  large  centres,  instead  of  de- 
spatching them  straight  to  their  destinations  in  the 
first  instance.  In  this  way  parcels  of  goods  travel  for 
a  part  of  their  journey  in  wagons  which  also  contain 
consignments  for  other  destinations,  and  more  can, 
therefore,  be  loaded  into  one  wagon  than  would  other- 
wise be  possible.  Among  other  large  centres  on  the 
Midland,  where  this  system  is  practised,  is  Leeds, 
where  the  goods  station  is  also  interesting  in  other  ways, 
being,  as  it  is,  large  and  of  modern  design. 

The  station  is  a  rectangular  building  containing 
six  lines  of  rails  (numbered  1  to  6),  arranged  three  and 
three,  with  a  platform  down  the  middle,  and  two  more 
platforms  beside  the  outside  lines  ;  at  the  two  outside 
platforms  the  drays  draw  up  and  consignments  for  or 
from  the  town  are  loaded  on  to  the  drays,  or  unloaded 
from  them.  Traffic  from  the  north  is  dealt  with  at 
one  side  of  the  station  and  from  the  south  at  the 
other. 

At  Leeds,  too,  besides  handling  goods  in  transit, 

G 


82         RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

the  Midland  carries  on  a  warehousing  business.  Above 
about  half  of  the  station  there  is  a  large  warehouse  in 
two  floors,  reached  by  a  lift.  A  great  part  of  this  is 
let  by  the  year  to  firms  who  find  it  a  convenient  spot 
to  store  their  goods. 

The  day  is  divided  into  two  unequal  parts,  the 
time  from  4  p.m.  to  midnight  being  utilised  for  de- 
spatching goods,  and  the  rest  of  the  day  for  receiving 
goods  for  Leeds,  and  for  transferring  from  one  vehicle 
to  another  goods  which  have  arrived  for  destinations 
beyond  Leeds.  As  the  trains  arrive,  as  many  wagons 
as  there  is  room  for  are  backed  into  the  platform  lines, 
and,  as  they  are  unloaded,  each  consignment  is  identi- 
fied by  the  checker,  and,  if  destined  for  delivery  in 
the  town,  wheeled  away  by  a  porter  to  that  part  of 
the  platform  at  which  is  drawn  up  the  dray,  which 
will  serve  the  district  in  which  the  address  is  situated. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  consignment  is  to  be  sent  on 
by  rail,  the  porter  wheels  it  straight  to  one  of  a  number 
of  wagons  marked  for  various  destinations,  which 
stand  near  at  hand  all  day  at  the  end  of  the  same,  or 
of  another,  platform  ;  and  the  consignment  is  straight- 
way packed  in  the  vehicle,  in  which  it  will  continue 
its  journey,  either  to  another  transfer  station  or  to 
its  final  destination.  In  this  way  small  consignments 
of  goods,  which  reach  Leeds  from  all  directions,  are 
united  to  form  considerable  loads  as  they  continue 
their  journey. 

The  successful  working  of  this  system  depends,  of 
course,  very  largely  upon  an  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  geography  of  the  line,  the  routes  followed  by  the 
different  trains,  and  other  particulars,  and  is  a  system 
which  is  calculated  to  show  better  and  better  results 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   83 

the  longer  it  goes  on  and  the  longer  the  men  who  work 
it  have  spent  in  mastering  the  rather  complicated 
details.  At  Leeds,  certainly,  the  system  makes  it 
possible  normally  to  despatch  a  large  proportion  of 
wagons  with  full  loads. 

The  moment  a  wagon  has  been  fully  loaded,  it  is 
drawn  forward  by  a  rope  worked  from  a  hydraulic 
capstan  to  a  traversing  table,  which  quickly  carries 
it  across  to  one  of  the  centre  lines  of  rails  Just  as 
the  traversing  table  is  about  to  reach  its  proper  posi- 
tion over  this  centre  line  of  rails,  a  short,  stout  pole  is 
placed  slantwise  with  one  end  on  the  ground  and  the 
other  under  the  body  of  the  wagon,  so  that  the  latter 
is  slightly  lifted,  and  at  the  right  moment  tumbles 
forward  off  the  traversing  table  on  to  the  rails,  along 
which  it  is  run  out  of  the  shed,  to  be  sheeted  and  sub- 
sequently marshalled  in  the  train,  of  which  it  will 
form  part.  The  whole  operation  is  very  rapidly  per- 
formed. When  any  movement  of  wagons  is  about 
to  take  place,  one. to  six  blasts  on  a  horn  are  blown  as 
a  warning  signal,  the  number  of  blasts  corresponding 
to  the  number  of  the  road  on  which  the  movement 
is  to  be  made.  As  the  supply  of  empty  wagons  becomes 
exhausted,  more  are  brought  into  the  shed  along  the 
centre  lines  of  rails,  and  so  work  proceeds  till,  by 
4  p.m.,  all  the  receiving  and  transferring  for  the  day  is 
over,  and  attention  is  turned  to  the  purely  outwards 
traffic. 

The  work  of  checking  is,  of  course,  greatly  facili- 
tated if  all  the  consignments  received  are  fully  and 
legibly  addressed.  This  apparently  simple  require- 
ment, after  having  been  a  matter  of  dispute  between 
the  railway  companies  and  their  customers  for  a  very 


84         RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

long  time,  has  now  been  accepted  by  the  traders,  and 
little  trouble  on  this  score  is  now  experienced.  It  is 
probably  the  better  understanding  now  existing  be- 
tween the  different  companies  that  has  enabled  them 
to  carry  the  day  in  this  matter,  in  which  they  would 
certainly  seem  to  have  reason  on  their  side. 

The  covered-in  station  is  only  a  comparatively 
small  part  of  the  space  occupied  by  the  company, 
which  includes  marshalling  sidings,  sidings  for  the 
storage  of  empty  wagons,  a  platform  where  station 
to  station  traffic  is  dealt  with,  and  stables  for  the 
130  or  so  horses  which  are  required  to  deliver  and 
collect  goods  in  Leeds.  The  company  evidently  find 
that  it  pays  not  to  stint  money  on  the  horses.  As  a 
result  of  paying  a  good  price  for  them,  keeping  them 
in  large  airy  stables,  and  looking  after  them  well, 
there  were  at  the  time  of  my  visit  only  four  horses 
unfit  for  work,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  singularly  un- 
compromising cobbles  with  which  the  streets  of  Leeds 
are  mostly  paved.  A  smithy  and  a  harness-maker's 
shop  form  part  of  the  permanent  establishment. 
Although  one-horse  drays  are  the  vehicles  normally 
in  use,  means  have  to  be  provided  for  harnessing  any 
number  of  horses,  up  to  eight,  to  one  vehicle,  when 
exceptional  loads  have  to  be  moved.  If,  as  occasion- 
ally happens,  a  load  is  offered  for  which  eight  horses 
are  insufficient,  a  traction-engine  is  hired  for  moving  it. 

The  stricter  attention  devoted  to  the  economical 
loading  of  goods  trains  has  been  followed  in  some  cases 
by  the  introduction  of  an  elaborate  system  of  control- 
ling from  a  number  of  convenient  points,  and  through 
them,  if  necessary,  from  a  single  central  office,  all 
the  goods  traffic  passing  over  a  railway.  This  system, 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   85 

first  applied  by  the  Midland,  has  since  been  adopted 
with  variations  by  a  number  of  other  companies. 

On  the  Midland  at  the  present  time  the  supreme 
control  over  the  goods  traffic  of  the  whole  line  is  exer- 
cised from  an  office  at  Derby.     The  Midland  is  divided 
into  eighteen  districts,  and  these  in  turn  contain  from 
three  to  five  sections,  into  and  out  of  which  the  move- 
ment of  every  goods  train  is  recorded  by  certain  signal 
boxes,  known  as  "  reporting  boxes,"  which  are  situated 
on  the  boundaries  of  the  different  sections,     Every 
reporting  box  is  in  constant  telephonic  communica- 
tion with  the  control  office,  in  whose  district  it  lies, 
and  every  hour  it  sends  in  a  list  of  trains  which  have 
passed  into  the  section  of  line,  at  the  entrance  of 
which  it  stands,  but  have  not  yet  been  signalled  from 
the  next  reporting  box  as  having  passed  out  of  it. 
This  list  is  telephoned  on  to  the  head  control  office  at 
Derby.    Here  a  record  of  the  position  of  each  train 
in  the  five  most  important  districts,  between  Norman- 
ton  and  Leicester,  is  kept  by  means  of  an  arrangement 
devised  for  the  purpose  (the  traffic  of  the  other  dis- 
tricts not  being  followed  quite  so  closely).     Strips  of 
metal  are  fastened   edgewise  to   a  long  table,   each 
representing  a  line  of  rails  ;  the  positions  of  the  various 
reporting   boxes   are   marked   at   intervals.     On   the 
different  reporting  sections  are  arranged  clips  showing 
the  approximate  positions  of  all  the  goods  trains  in 
that  section  when  the  last  report  was  received,  and  to 
each  clip  is  attached  a  card  of  the  colour  which  corre- 
sponds to  the  train  reported  (white  for  mineral  trains, 
pink  for  express  goods  trains,  and  red  for  certain  other 
descriptions  of  trains)  ;  on  the  cards  also  are  inscribed 
particulars  of  the  train,  such  as  the  number  of  the 


86         KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

engine  working  it,  the  number  of  wagons  it  contains, 
its  starting-place,  destination,  and  the  time  at  which 
it  was  due  to  begin  its  journey.  At  the  edge  of  the 
table  there  is  also  an  elaborate  plan  of  the  railway, 
showing  the  particulars  of  the  line  much  more  exactly 
than  the  metal  strips  can  do.  With  the  help  of  all 
this  the  operators  have  before  their  eyes  a  fairly  com- 
plete representation  of  all  the  goods  traffic  passing 
over  the  running  lines  ;  they  know  what  traffic  there 
is  waiting  to  be  moved  at  the  different  points  en  route, 
and  can  make  the  most  expeditious  arrangements  for 
it ;  they  supervise  the  distribution  of  wagons  ;  and, 
if  anything  occurs  to  disorder  the  working  of  the  trains, 
they  at  once  become  aware  of  it,  see  the  best  way  to 
set  it  right,  and  send  off  by  telephone  the  necessary 
instructions.  If  a  line  becomes  blocked,  they  decide 
what  measures  must  be  taken  to  work  the  traffic  by 
an  altered  route,  and  they  know  when  each  engine- 
crew  came  on  duty,  and  take  steps  to  provide  relief 
for  them  at  the  proper  time.  Any  decision,  which 
affects  the  traffic  of  more  than  one  district,  is  always 
referred  to  the  head  office  at  Derby,  but  the  district 
control  offices  issue  instructions  on  their  own  account 
with  regard  to  traffic,  which  neither  passes  out  of, 
nor  affects,  any  district  but  their  own. 

Certain  categories  of  specially  important  goods 
trains,  besides  being  reported  in  the  same  way  as  all 
the  other  goods  and  mineral  trains  are  reported,  are 
followed  carefully  throughout  their  whole  journey  as 
they  pass  the  different  signal  boxes,  and,  if  they  arrive 
at  their  destinations  appreciably  behind  time,  investi- 
gations are  at  once  made  to  determine  the  reason  and 
to  prevent  it  from  occurring  in  future.  And  not  only 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND      87 

is  this  system  used  to  prevent  delays  on  future  occasions, 
but,  more  than  this,  if  it  is  found  that  a  train  has  lost 
time  early  in  its  journey,  arrangements  can  sometimes 
be  made  with  the  signal  boxes  ahead  to  keep  the  road 
clear  for  it  at  the  proper  time,  and  so  help  it  to  make 
up  part,  or  all,  of  the  time  it  has  lost. 

Another  matter  which  is  regulated  from  the  central 
control  office  is  the  supply  of  wagons  of  special  design, 
used  for  certain  exceptional  kinds  of  loads,  which  are 
despatched  but  seldom.  The  Midland  has  a  small 
number  each  of  about  thirty  kinds  of  wagons,  which 
are  designed  for  the  transport  of  special  kinds  of  goods, 
and  it  may  easily  happen  that  the  available  supply 
is  insufficient  to  meet  every  sudden  demand,  so  that 
some  customer  or  other  has  to  wrait  his  turn.  So,  to 
minimise  delays,  a  record  is  kept  in  the  control  office 
of  the  place  where,  according  to  the  latest  advices, 
each  of  these  vehicles  is  to  be  found.  This  is  done  by 
the  means  of  a  board  divided  into  a  number  of  columns, 
each  column  being  devoted  to  one  kind  of  vehicle.  In 
each  column  is  a  line  of  pegs,  one  representing  each 
station  where  the  vehicles,  when  empty,  are  laid  up, 
and  the  pegs  are  kept  ticketed  with  the  number  of 
vehicles  reported  to  have  arrived  at  each  station. 

The  control  system  has  resulted  in  considerable 
economy  both  of  labour  and  rolling  stock.  The  weak 
points  of  any  scheme  of  working  soon  become  apparent 
to  any  one  who  thus  secures  such  a  comprehensive 
view  of  it,  and  the  elimination  of  either  permanently, 
or  temporarily,  unnecessary  trains  becomes  a  simple 
matter. 

To  ensure  the  smooth  working  of  the  control  system, 
it  is  of  importance  that  the  trains  should  be  correctly 


88          RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

reported.  For  this  reason,  therefore,  there  are  dis- 
played on  the  sides  of  the  brake-vans,  in  large  letters, 
certain  code  signs,  which  indicate  the  identity  of  the 
train — its  time  of  departure  from  its  original  starting- 
point  and  its  destination.  The  rather  ugly  large 
figures,  too,  with  which  Midland  engines  are  now 
numbered,  play  their  part  in  making  it  almost  im- 
possible to  misread  the  number  of  the  engine. 

At  Toton,  a  couple  of  miles  north  of  Trent,  are  situ- 
ated the  marshalling  sidings,  from  which  are  distributed 
the  enormous  quantities  of  coal  raised  in  the  numerous 
neighbouring  collieries.  The  sidings  lie  on  either  side 
of  the  main  line  to  the  north,  those  to  the  east  dealing 
principally  with  full  wagons  coming  from  the  collieries, 
and  those  to  the  west  with  the  empty  returning  wagons, 
and  in  both  cases  the  marshalling  is  performed  by  the 
help  of  gravity.  In  other  parts  of  the  country  a  special 
undulation,  known  as  a  "  hump,"  has  had  to  be  built 
in  order  to  make  the  force  of  gravity  available,  but 
at  Toton  the  trains  of  wagons  from  both  directions 
arrive  at  a  level  high  above  the  sidings  destined  to 
receive  them,  and  there  is  no  necessity  to  push  them 
laboriously  up  one  side  of  a  hill  to  make  them  run 
down  the  other  side.  Some  idea  of  the  volume  of  the 
traffic  dealt  with  may  be  gathered  when  it  is  stated 
that  there  are  30  roads  parallel  to  one  another  to 
the  east  of  the  main  line  and  18  to  the  west,  and, 
even  so,  trains  are  despatched  to  many  more  desti- 
nations than  there  are  roads  on  which  to  make  them 
up.  The  system  of  working  is  that  a  train  arrives  on 
the  high  level,  the  train  engine  is  detached,  and  then, 
when  it  is  the  turn  of  this  particular  train  to  be  broken 
up,  a  shunting  engine  comes  on  behind  and  gradually 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   89 

pushes  it  over  the  brow  of  the  hill ;  here  at  first,  for 
a  short  distance,  there  is  a  steep  descent,  on  which 
the  wagon  rapidly  gains  speed,  and  subsequently, 
right  to  the  end  of  the  siding,  the  descent  continues, 
but  much  less  steeply,  so  that  a  wagon,  which  runs 
normally,  will,  when  properly  started,  continue  in 
motion  for  any  distance,  but  one  which  has  been 
brought  to  a  stand  will  not  start  again  of  itself.  The 
wagons  are  run  down  the  hill,  either  singly,  or,  if  more 
than  one  for  the  same  destination  are  already  next 
one  another,  these  are  sent  down  together.  The 
work  is  done  very  quickly,  sometimes  only  20  yards 
separating  one  shunt — as  each  wagon  or  number  of 
wagons  is  called — from  the  next.  The  points  are  set 
for  each  shunt,  in  accordance  with  marks  placed  upon 
it,  and  are  controlled  from  a  box  near  the  divergence 
of  the  different  roads.  All  wagons  do  not  run  equally 
well,  some  being  better  maintained  than  others  ;  frost 
may  harden  the  lubricating  grease  and  make  them  run 
stiffly,  and  wind  exercises  an  accelerating  or  retarding 
effect,  in  accordance  with  its  direction  ;  so  the  incline, 
on  which  the  wagons  acquire  their  momentum,  must 
be  made  steep  enough  to  give  an  unnecessarily  great 
impetus  to  a  wagon  which  runs  freely,  and  its  course 
may  have  to  be  retarded.  At  the  bottom  of  the  steep 
part  of  the  incline,  therefore,  stand  shunters,  armed 
with  poles,  and,  as  each  wagon  passes  them,  they 
observe  whether  it  is  going  too  fast ;  if  it  is,  one  of 
the  shunters  puts  his  pole  between  the  brake-lever  and 
the  frame  of  the  wagon,  and,  lifting  his  feet  from  the 
ground,  rides  on  the  end  of  the  pole,  till  he  judges  that 
the  speed  has  been  sufficiently  reduced.  Sometimes, 
but  very  rarely,  a  wagon  runs  so  badly  that  it  has  not 


90         KAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

enough  momentum  to  carry  it  to  its  appointed  posi- 
tion ;  in  this  case  it  is  usually  necessary  for  the  pushing 
engine,  when  next  it  is  disengaged,  to  descend  the 
incline  and  take  the  wagon  to  its  proper  place. 

In  this  way  the  different  trains  are  made  up,  but 
before  they  can  start  on  their  journey  a  certain  amount 
of  subsequent  shunting  is  generally  necessary  to  get 
the  wagons  in  the  right  order.  This  is  done  in  the 
ordinary  way  by  the  awkward  process  of  the  trains 
being  run  backwards  and  forwards  by  an  engine,  and 
offers  the  greatest  contrast  to  the  simple  and  expedi- 
tious method  of  making  up  the  trains  by  the  help  of 
gravity.  When  a  train  is  arranged  with  the  wagons 
in  the  proper  order,  a  brake  van  is  run  down  by  gravity 
from  a  short  siding,  where  a  number  of  these  vans 
are  standing  in  readiness,  and  attached  to  the  rear, 
and  then  everything  is  ready  for  the  start.  Some  of 
the  trains  leaving  Toton  for  the  south  are  very  heavily 
loaded.  One,  which  starts  in  the  afternoon,  some- 
times loads  up  to  eighty  full  wagons,  and  is  drawn  by 
two  engines.  The  day  I  was  there,  there  were  71 
loaded  wagons,  and,  even  so,  the  procession  seemed 
endless.  To  relieve  the  main  line,  there  is,  as  far  as 
beyond  Trent,  a  loop,  by  which  most  of  the  traffic 
to  and  from  the  south  leaves  and  enters  the  Toton 
sidings,  and  this  loop  adds  another  to  the  very  large 
number  of  lines,  which  cross  and  connect  with  one 
another  round  about  Trent. 

The  immense  traffic  worked  in  and  out  of  Toton, 
and  the  marshalling  and  shunting  operations,  which 
are  there  carried  on,  call  for  a  large  number  of  goods 
and  shunting  engines,  which  are  stationed  in  sheds 
towards  the  north  end  of  the  yard.  The  greater 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND      91 

number  are  of  ordinary  British  0-6-0  designs,  but  there 
are  still  at  work  a  number  of  2-6-0  engines,  ordered 
in  America  some  twelve  or  fifteen  years  ago,  at  a  time 
when  a  sudden  rush  of  traffic  made  it  impossible  to 
secure  in  this  country  all  the  engines  required.  The 
American  engines,  although  naturally  not  quite  so 
well  suited  to  their  work  as  their  British  sisters,  are 
still,  after  so  many  years,  giving  fairly  satisfactory 
results,  and  it  seems  likely  that  their  useful  careers 
will  be  prolonged  for  some  time  to  come. 

Like  most  other  British  railways,  the  Midland  has 
spent  large  sums  for  providing  facilities  which  have  no 
necessary  connection  with  actual  railway  transport. 
In  no  part  of  the  world  do  the  railways  confine 
themselves  to  the  business  of  transport  by  rail.  In 
undeveloped  countries  they  sometimes  practically 
administer  whole  provinces,  and  are  directly  concerned 
in  almost  every  form  of  activity  there  prevailing. 
Though  in  settled  countries  the  relative  importance  of 
railways  is  not  so  great,  they  invariably  extend  the 
field  of  their  operations  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
outside  the  mere  working  of  their  lines.  They  provide 
road  transport  to  carry  passengers  and  goods  to  and 
from  their  trains,  hotels  for  the  accommodation  of 
passengers,  and  warehouses  for  goods,  docks  and 
harbours  to  give  connections  between  their  trains  and 
sea-going  vessels,  and,  very  often  too,  lines  of  steamers 
of  their  own.  In  Great  Britain  they  also,  as  a  rule, 
manufacture  the  greater  part  of  their  own  require- 
ments in  their  own  workshops.  British  railways  are 
remarkable  among  those  in  settled  countries  for  the 
extent  to  which  they  have  carried  their  outside  acti- 
vities, and,  not  unnaturally,  in  a  sea-girt  country  like 


92          RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

Great  Britain  these  activities  are  primarily  in  connec- 
tion with  the  sea.  It  is  manifest  that  a  concern,  which 
possesses  railways  on  land,  vessels  on  the  sea,  and 
docks  and  quays  to  connect  the  two,  is  in  an  extremely 
strong  position  for  keeping  in  its  own  hands  any  traffic 
that  it  may  once  secure.  British  railways  have  not 
only  done  their  best  in  this  manner  to  secure  and  keep 
for  themselves  existing  traffic,  but  have  shown  great 
enterprise  in  developing  new  routes.  There  is  hardly 
a  railway  of  any  size  in  Great  Britain  which  does  not, 
either  directly  or  through  a  subsidiary  company, 
possess  a  considerable  fleet ;  all  the  more  accessible 
ports  of  the  coast  of  Europe  are  served  by  the  steamers 
of  some  railway  company  or  other  ;  four  of  the  biggest 
railways  run  their  own  steamboat  services  between 
different  points  in  England  and  Ireland  ;  and,  if  the 
railways  have  no  actual  share  in  the  ownership  of  the 
great  ocean  lines,  the  North  Western  and  the  South 
Western  stand  respectively  in  very  close  relation  to 
the  shipping  interests  of  Liverpool  and  Southampton. 
The  Midland  service  from  Heysham  is  quite  a 
recent  addition  to  the  railway  steamship  services 
between  England  and  Ireland.  So  far  Heysham  is, 
perhaps,  more  deserving  of  attention  for  its  promise 
than  for  its  performance,  as  is  generally  the  case  with 
any  large  enterprise  during  the  first  years  of  its  exist- 
ence. A  daily  service  to  and  from  Ireland,  summer 
sailings  to  and  from  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  the  custom 
of  a  certain  number  of  tramp  steamers,  are  only  the 
beginning  of  what  is  likely  one  day  to  be  a  very  big 
business.  Meanwhile,  the  place  is  being  got  into 
thorough  working  order.  Difficulties  with  regard  to 
the  silting  up  of  the  entrance,  owing  to  the  strength 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   93 

of  the  currents  in  Morecambe  Bay,  have  been  very 
largely  overcome  by  the  construction  of  a  new  pier,  and 
now  a  small  amount  of  dredging  suffices  to  keep  open 
for  large  ships  the  short  channel  which  connects  the 
entrance  of  the  harbour  with  the  so-called  Heysham 
Lake — extensive  deeps  through  which  the  approach 
to  the  harbour  is  made.  The  company's  vessels  are 
in  constant  communication  with  the  shore  by  means 
of  a  wireless  telegraph  station  at  Heysham.  All  the 
lighting  and  power  required  for  the  harbour  is  supplied 
from  the  company's  power  station  near  by,  which 
serves  also  to  provide  electricity  for  the  working  of  the 
experimental  electric  train  service  between  Heysham, 
Morecambe,  and  Lancaster,  which  has  now  been  in 
existence  for  some  years.  But  the  great  day  for 
Heysham  will  be  when  docks  have  been  built  over  the 
large  area  of  flat,  low-lying  ground,  which  the  company 
possesses  adjacent  to  the  harbour,  to  be,  if  necessary, 
supplemented  by  yet  a  further  series  of  docks,  to  reach 
which  a  cutting  through  a  low  ridge  will  be  required. 
And  the  present  delay  has  been  not  wholly  without 
compensation,  for  it  is  now  realised  that,  owing  to 
the  great  increase  in  the  size  of  steamships  during 
recent  years,  the  principal  dock  entrance,  which  was 
originally  planned  to  be  80  ft.  wide,  will  have  to  be 
made  100  ft.  wide,  and  corresponding  increases  made 
in  the  dimensions  of  the  docks. 

Next  to  their  shipping  activities  British  railways 
have  endeavoured  to  secure  for  themselves  as  much 
as  possible  of  their  clients'  custom  by  building  and 
maintaining,  at  important  centres,  hotels,  which, 
being  generally  on  the  actual  sites  of  the  stations,  offer 
those  people,  who  make  use  of  them,  the  maximum 


94         RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

convenience.  A  big  modem  station  seems  hardly  to  be 
thought  complete  without  a  huge  hotel  in  close  con- 
nection with  it  to  intercept  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
expenditure  of  the  rail-farers  for  the  benefit  of  the  rail- 
way company's  shareholders.  Nearly  all  the  London 
termini  have  more  or  less  big  hotels  attached  to  them 
in  this  manner,  most  of  the  big  English  provincial 
towns  have  at  least  one  big  railway  hotel,  which  is 
sometimes  the  most  important  public  building  in  the 
place,  and,  crossing  the  border,  the  provision  of  hotels 
in  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh,  by  the  different  railway 
companies,  is  found  to  be  on  a  completer  scale  than 
perhaps  anywhere  else.  The  hotels  at  the  Central, 
St.  Enoch's  and  Queen  Street,  Waverley  and  Prince's 
Street,  what  would  modern  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh 
be  without  them  ?  In  England  the  hotels  owned  by 
the  Midland  are  certainly  among  the  best  managed  of 
all.  They  pass  that  crowning  test  of  efficiency  for 
British  hotels  that  the  coffee  which  they  supply  is, 
almost  always,  not  merely  drinkable  but  excellent. 

Some  railways  build  more  of  the  rolling-stock  and 
appliances  which  they  require  than  others.  On  most 
lines  there  can  be  very  little  modern  rolling  stock  that 
did  not  come  from  the  owning  companies'  workshops, 
while  even  those  railways,  which  give  out  more  of  their 
work  to  private  builders,  still  manufacture  for  them- 
selves by  far  the  greater  part  of  their  requirements, 
and  have  recourse  to  outside  assistance  only  when 
their  own  hands  are  full.  The  big  British  railway 
companies  employ  private  builders  much  less  than 
is  the  case  in  any  other  country,  and  possibly  it  is 
owing  to  this  that  the  rolling  stock,  particularly  the 
locomotives,  of  most  of  these  companies  exhibits  such 


KAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   95 

marked  signs  of  the  individuality  of  the  designers. 
But,  though  there  is  little  standardisation  on  inter- 
company lines,  each  company  has  in  its  own  workshops 
brought  the  standardisation  and  interchangeability  of 
parts  to  a  high  pitch  of  perfection. 

If  the  railways  are  ever  taken  over  by  the  State, 
everything  to  do  with  them  will  certainly  be  in  a 
large  measure  standardised  throughout  the  country.  A 
central  authority,  managing  the  railways  as  a  whole, 
would  not  hesitate  to  put  a  stop  to  certain  existing 
anomalies  which  are  the  outcome  of  the  present  system, 
and  which  do  no  good  to  any  one.  It  is  certainly  not 
good  management  that  the  Scottish  trains  on  the  East 
and  West  Coast  routes  should  have  to  be  fitted  with 
both  Westinghouse  and  automatic  vacuum  brakes 
because  the  northern  companies  have  adopted  the 
former,  and  the  southern  companies  the  latter,  system. 

Then,  in  the  manufacture  of  rolling  stock  and 
appliances  generally,  much  fewer  patterns,  produced 
in  much  larger  quantities  than  is  at  present  done, 
would  perhaps  conduce  to  economy.  But  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  more  would  not  be  lost  than  gained  by 
such  means.  It  is  obvious  that  when  the  railways 
are,  as  at  present,  divided  up  into  a  number  of  different 
concerns,  each  of  which  has,  to  some  extent,  its  own 
type  of  appliances,  there  is  far  more  scope  for  the 
introduction  of  improvements  and  developments  of 
all  kinds  than  if  all  the  appliances  for  the  railways 
throughout  the  country  were  produced  under  the 
supervision  of  a  single  authority.  As  already  remarked, 
each  railway  has  to  a  very  large  extent  standardised 
the  appliances  which  it  requires  for  its  own  use,  with 
very  satisfactory  results  as  regards  economy,  and  it 


96         RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

seems  quite  likely  that  this  process  has  already  been 
carried  far  enough,  and  that  the  introduction  of  a 
more  rigid  standardisation  of  railway  appliances  would 
act  as  a  most  undesirable  check  upon  invention.  It 
is  also  quite  possible  to  overrate  the  value  of  standardi- 
sation. One  reason  why  it  is  so  much  cheaper  to 
build  things  in  batches  than  singly  is  that  one  set  of 
drawings  and  patterns  suffices  in  both  cases.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  it  is  much  cheaper  to  build  twenty 
engines  or  carriages  of  the  same  design  than  it  is  to 
build  one,  because  the  cost  of  making  the  drawings 
and  patterns  is  the  same  for  the  one  as  for  the  twenty. 
But  this  cost,  when  spread  over  only  twenty  units, 
may  not  amount  to  very  much  per  unit,  and  a  point 
is  soon  reached  when  the  economy,  which  can  be 
secured  by  using  the  same  drawings  and  patterns, 
becomes  quite  small. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  for  any  one  unconnected 
with  any  given  railway  to  secure  a  trial  upon  that 
railway  for  any  improved  appliance.  Epoch-making 
inventions  like  the  injector,  the  Westinghouse  brake, 
and  the  superheater  did  not  make  good  their  position 
without  a  struggle.  Walschaerts'  valve  gear  is  even 
now  being  only  tentatively  applied.  Such  improve- 
ments as  are  from  time  to  time  adopted,  are  generally 
the  inventions  of  a  designer  or  designers  already  in  the 
service  of  some  railway  or  other.  It  is,  therefore, 
highly  desirable  that  the  number  of  such  persons 
should  be  as  great  as  possible,  and,  if  the  designing 
for  all  the  railways  were  done  at  one  central  office 
instead  of  at  a  large  number  of  offices  situated  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  as  is  now  the  case,  their 
numbers  would  certainly  be  considerably  diminished. 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTEAL  ENGLAND   97 

A  rather  serious  objection  to  the  way  in  which  the 
railway  workshops  are  conducted  has  lately  been  a 
good  deal  discussed,  and  this  is  that  no  adequate 
figures  are  made  public,  by  which  the  cost  of  the 
manufactures  of  these  shops  can  be  compared  with 
that  of  the  manufactures  of  private  firms.  The  infer- 
ence is  that  the  railway  companies,  as  manufacturers, 
not  being  obliged,  so  as  to  secure  orders,  to  compete 
with  other  manufacturers  in  the  open  market,  carry 
on  their  work  on  uncommercial  lines,  and  do  not  keep 
either  their  methods  or  their  equipment  at  such  a  high 
level  of  efficiency  as  do  the  private  firms.  To  what 
extent  the  so-called  "  open  market "  in  the  railway 
material  industries  is  really  open,  that  is  to  say  to  what 
extent  the  various  firms  abstain  from  making  private 
arrangements  with  one  another  when  preparing  to 
tender  for  orders,  I  do  not  know.  It  is  certainly  more 
than  possible  that  they  contrive  to  shelter  them- 
selves from  the  full  effects  of  unlimited  competition. 
But,  be  this  as  it  may,  the  prices  which  they  charge  are 
known  and  available  for  comparison,  while  the  cost 
of  the  railway  companies'  own  manufactures  are  not 
known  in  anything  like  the  same  detail.  To  some 
extent,  however,  this  is  unavoidable  because  the  rail- 
way companies'  establishments  are  necessarily  repair 
shops  as  well  as  works  for  the  construction  of  new 
material,  and  to  that  extent  the  conditions  are  different 
from  those  found  in  the  establishments  belonging  to 
private  firms. 

A  good  many  years  ago  it  was  established  by  a 
decision  of  the  Courts  that  railway  companies  may 
not  manufacture  for  one  another  or  for  the  general 
market,  but  each  must  confine  itself  to  meeting  its 

H 


98          RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

own  requirements.  To  such  a  point  do  the  companies 
now  do  their  own  manufacturing  that  the  private  firms, 
which  make  rolling  stock,  appear  to  regard  this  decision 
as  the  only  thing  which  preserves  to  them  any  part  of 
the  home  market,  and  they  look  with  disfavour  on 
proposals  for  amalgamating  separate  railway  com- 
panies because  they  fear  that  the  combined  companies, 
by  joining  their  productive  resources,  will  be  able  yet 
more  completely  than  before  to  dispense  with  outside 
assistance.  But  if  the  railway  companies  carry  out 
for  themselves  a  great  many  of  the  later  processes  of 
manufacture,  they  are  very  far  from  monopolising  the 
earlier  processes,  and  practically  everything  they  use 
has,  by  the  time  it  reaches  them,  had  a  good  deal  of 
work  already  done  upon  it.  It  is  noteworthy  that 
with  regard  to  rails,  the  making  of  which  is  a  fairly 
simple  process,  the  railway  companies,  except  the 
North  Western,  do  not  manufacture  for  themselves. 

The  fixing  of  rates  and  fares  is  the  most  important 
and  also  the  most  difficult  question  connected  with 
railways.  Owing  to  the  enormous  part  railways  play 
in  present-day  life,  and  the  almost  absolute  depend- 
ence which  everyone  is  obliged  to  place  upon  them, 
any  unfairness  in  their  charges  must  have  the  most 
serious  results,  while  at  the  same  time  the  number  of 
different  considerations,  which  have  to  be  borne  in 
mind  in  endeavouring  to  decide  what  constitutes  fair 
charges,  make  the  problem  one  of  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty. It  is  clearly  out  of  the  question  to  attempt  to 
fix  fares  in  accordance  with  the  actual  expense  incurred 
by  the  railway  company  in  transporting  each  pas- 
senger. Hardly  two  consecutive  miles  of  any  railway 
have  cost  exactly  the  same  sum  to  build,  the  prices  of 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND   99 

different  kinds  of  engines  and  carriages  vary,  the 
railway  companies'  profits  vary  with  the  number  of 
passengers  carried  in  any  particular  train,  and  with 
the  number  of  trains  run  over  any  particular  line,  and 
so  on.  Then  there  are  questions  of  public  policy  to 
be  considered.  A  railway,  being  a  State  sanctioned 
monopoly,  cannot  be  left  free  to  fix  its  charges  in  the 
same  way  as  a  private  business  can  be  left  free.  Many 
branch  lines  in  remote  parts  of  the  country,  without 
much  traffic,  must  be  sources  of  very  little  profit  to 
the  companies,  but  the  railways  may  not  try  to  recoup 
themselves  by  charging  specially  high  fares  on  lines  of 
this  kind,  as  this  would  inflict  special  hardships  upon 
the  people  who  use  them,  and,  it  is  considered,  would 
conflict  with  the  duty  of  the  State,  as  far  as  possible 
to  ensure  that  none  of  its  citizens  are  subjected  to 
special  disabilities.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  of  great 
importance  to  enable  workmen,  whom  modern  con- 
ditions have  forced  to  live  in  localities  remote  from 
their  places  of  work  to  go  backwards  and  forwards  at 
very  cheap  fares.  Railways,  as  well  as  other  concerns, 
can  afford  to  give  a  reduction  on  a  quantity,  and  the 
cheapness  of  workmen's  tickets  is  to  some  extent  com- 
pensated by  the  great  numbers  of  workmen  who  travel. 
But  besides  workmen,  many  other  kinds  of  passengers 
get  the  benefit  of  this  principle  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent.  Chief  among  these  are  the  season-ticket 
holders,  who,  if  they  travel  a  great  deal,  get  very  large 
reductions  on  what  they  would  have  had  to  pay  as 
ordinary  passengers.  Railway  companies  love  the 
season-ticket  holder.  He  is  often  a  man  of  substance, 
whose  living  on  the  line  means  much  more  profit  than 
his  own  season  ticket  brings,  he  travels  at  regular, 


100        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

and,  therefore,  convenient,  times,  and,  once  firmly 
established  on  the  line,  is  likely  to  remain  there.  Do 
not  the  Chairmen  revel  in  him  at  the  general  meetings  ? 
However  blue  otherwise  the  complexion  of  the  report, 
the  number  of  season-ticket  holders  has  generally  gone 
up,  and,  as  it  is  settled  beyond  doubt  that  these  same 
season-ticket  holders  are  the  barometer  of  the  pros- 
perity of  the  line,  all  is  well  even  on  what  would  other- 
wise be  the  most  depressing  occasions. 

So,  hardly  any  attempt  is  made  to  fix  fares  in 
accordance  with  the  expense  incurred  in  building  the 
line,  the  ordinary  fares  being  almost  always  exactly 
in  proportion  to  the  distance,  but  the  principle  of 
granting  a  reduction  on  a  quantity  is  met  with  in  a 
variety  of  forms.  Beginning  with  a  small  reduction 
on  the  double  fare  in  the  case  of  most  return  tickets, 
the  principle  is  carried  to  greater  lengths  in  the  matter 
of  week-end  tickets  to  certain  selected  places  ;  excur- 
sion tickets,  issued  when  large  numbers  of  people  may 
be  counted  on  to  travel  in  a  manner  which  makes  their 
transport  very  economical,  are  cheaper  yet,  and  tickets 
for  workmen's  trains,  when  the  conditions  of  excursion 
trains  are  reproduced  in  a  higher  degree,  probably 
cheapest  of  all. 

As  so  few  people  have  any  money  to  spare,  it  is 
always  found  that  the  great  bulk  of  travellers  gravitate 
to  the  cheapest  class.  The  only  really  effective  way 
of  preventing  practically  the  whole  travelling  public 
from  utilising  the  cheapest  class  is  to  abstain  from 
running  carriages  of  this  class  on  fast  trains.  In 
England  this  measure  is  very  little  adopted,  and  rail- 
way managers  have  long  had  to  face  the  problem  of 
what  to  do  with  the  first  and  second-class  carriages. 


EAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND     101 

The  Midland  long  ago  abolished  second-class  carriages, 
and  this  example  has  been  followed  to  a  very  large 
extent  by  other  companies,  so  that  gradually  the  second 
class  is  being  crushed  out  of  existence,  but  the  problem 
of  the  first  class  is  a  different  matter.  It  is  recognised 
that  some  means  must  be  provided  for  people,  who 
desire  it,  to  secure,  by  the  payment  of  a  higher  fare,  a 
greater  degree  of  comfort  and  privacy  than  is  afforded 
by  an  ordinary  third-class  carriage.  The  only  real 
questions  appear  to  be  how  much  extra  fare  is  to  be 
demanded,  and  how  the  extra  comfort  and  privacy 
are  to  be  provided.  The  principal  objection  to  the 
present  arrangement  is  the  great  difference  existing 
between  the  first-  and  third-class  fares,  which  to  the 
minds  of  most  people  is  far  greater  than  the  difference 
in  the  accommodation  given  in  the  two  classes.  But, 
as  the  cost  to  the  railway  company  must  be  approxi- 
mately in  proportion  to  the  space  occupied  by  the 
passenger,  and  a  first-class  passenger  gets  nearly  twice 
as  much  cubic  space  reserved  for  him  as  a  third-class 
passenger,  it  would  be  necessary,  if  first-class  fares 
were  much  reduced,  to  effect  also  a  reduction  in  the 
space  offered,  which  would  seriously  diminish  the  already 
too  small  attractiveness  of  the  first  class. 

At  intervals  very  faint  protests  are  raised  against 
the  British  system  of  not  registering  luggage  when  it 
is  conveyed  by  train.  As  the  protests  never  seem  to 
attract  any  attention  worth  speaking  of,  it  looks  as 
though  most  people  were  quite  satisfied  with  the 
present  arrangement,  which  is  certainly  rapid  and  con- 
venient, and,  although  luggage  is  theoretically  more 
likely  to  be  lost  or  stolen  if  it  is  not  registered,  the 
extreme  rarity  with  which  anything  of  this  kind  happens 


102        BAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BK1TAIN 

in  England  effectively  disposes  of  the  fancied  advantage 
of  registration  from  this  point  of  view.  Practically 
every  other  system,  indeed,  adds  seriously  to  the 
trouble  of  a  journey  at  each  end,  and,  even  if  registra- 
tion, as  practised  on  the  Continent,  makes  it  slightly 
less  likely  that  the  luggage  should  get  lost  outright 
(which,  moreover,  is  very  doubtful),  it  is  only  necessary 
to  read  the  correspondence  columns  of  the  newspapers 
to  be  speedily  convinced  that  it  is  very  far  indeed  from 
preventing  thefts  from  taking  place  en  route.  In 
America,  if  a  traveller  is  so  unwise  as  to  be  travelling 
with  his  own  luggage,  the  difficulties  of  securing  it  on 
arrival  at  his  destination  are  often  considerable,  and 
if  the  arrival  takes  place  late  at  night,  the  chances  are 
that  he  will  be  told  that  he  cannot  have  it  at  all  till  the 
following  morning. 

If  the  fixing  of  passenger  fares  is  a  complicated 
matter,  the  complications  encountered  in  fixing  goods 
rates  are  greater  still.  From  the  point  of  view  of  a 
railway  company,  one  passenger  is  very  much  like 
another — each  passenger  finds  his  own  way  to  the 
station,  buys  his  own  ticket,  gets  into  the  train  by  his 
own  motive  power,  when  there  occupies  the  same 
amount  of  space  as  each  of  the  other  passengers  of  his 
class,  and  at  the  end  of  the  journey  alights  of  his  own 
accord  and  goes  about  his  business.  But  with  goods 
it  is  very  different.  A  consignment  may  weigh  a  few 
pounds  or  may  want  a  whole  train  to  convey  it ;  it 
may,  or  may  not,  be  perishable  and  require  to  be  sent 
off  and  delivered  at  express  speed,  it  may  want  special 
care  in  loading,  transit,  and  unloading,  it  may  have  to 
be  sent  in  specially  constructed  vehicles,  and  it  may 
be  packed  in  a  manner  easy  to  handle  or  the  reverse, 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND  103 

and  so  on.  The  trouble  and  expense,  therefore,  in- 
volved in  transporting  equal  weights  of  goods  varies 
within  far  wider  limits  than  is  the  case  with  passengers, 
and  goods  rates  are  naturally  graduated  far  more  finely 
than  are  passenger  fares,  while  the  principle  of  granting 
a  reduction  on  a  quantity  is  yet  more  firmly  established. 

For  the  purpose  of  charging  rates,  goods  are  divided 
into  eight  classes.  For  the  first  20  miles  the  rates  on 
goods  belonging  to  each  of  these  classes  vary  from  Id. 
to  4'30cZ.  a  ton  a  mile  ;  if  the  distance  exceeds  20  miles, 
the  rates  per  ton  per  mile  for  each  of  the  next  30  miles 
are  somewhat  lower ;  if  the  distance  is  more  than  50 
miles,  the  rates  for  each  of  the  succeeding  50  miles  are 
lower  still,  and  they  are  lower  again  for  each  mile 
beyond  100.  (These  rates  do  not  include  terminal 
fees,  fees  for  loading,  unloading,  etc.,  nor,  in  the  case 
of  the  lowest  rates,  the  use  of  wagons.)  They  are,  in 
each  case,  the  maxima  that  can  be  charged  by  law, 
but  these  maxima  are  by  no  means  always  charged 
in  practice.  Moreover,  very  large  numbers  of  things, 
in  which  there  is  a  considerable  traffic,  are  given 
special  rates  lower  than  the  class-rates  which  they 
would  otherwise  be  called  on  to  pay. 

This  scale  of  rates  effectually  prevents  the  railways 
from  making  charges  higher  than  are  therein  autho- 
rised. But,  up  to  the  time  of  the  passing  into  law 
of  the  Railways  Bill  of  1913,  it  was  not  held  that  the 
companies  had  the  power  of  increasing  up  to  the 
maximum  limit,  or  indeed  at  all  (unless  there  were  very 
special  justifying  circumstances)  any  existing  rate 
lower  than  the  maximum,  and  very  few  increases  were 
in  fact  put  into  force.  Under  the  Act  of  1913  the 
railways  now  possess  this  power,  but  may  use  it  only 


104        RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

to  recoup  themselves  for  expenditure  incurred  in 
raising  the  wages  and  improving  the  conditions  of 
service  of  the  railway  servants. 

Any  experimental  reduction  of  rates  on  British 
lines  is  therefore  very  difficult,  owing  to  the  fact  that, 
if  the  reduction  fails  to  produce  the  hoped-for  effects, 
and  it  is  desired  to  put  the  rate  up  again  to  its 
former  level,  the  railway  company  may  be  called  upon 
to  justify  the  increase  before  they  put  it  into  force.* 

Besides  all  this,  railway  rates  have  been  fixed  with 
due  consideration  for  "  what  the  traffic  can  bear." 
That  is  to  say,  certain  luxuries  and  articles  of  con- 
siderable value  are  quite  frankly  called  upon  to  pay 
more  than  the  actual  cost  of  their  transport,  together 
with  a  fair  profit,  would  amount  to.  This  is  to  some 
extent  a  matter  of  public  policy.  It  is  manifest  that, 
if  goods  of  this  kind  are  obliged  to  pay  more  than  their 
share,  other  kinds  of  goods  need  not  pay  their  full 
share,  and,  if  these  other  kinds  comprise  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  the  cost  of  living  may  thus  be  artificially 
cheapened.  From  a  purely  economic  standpoint  such 

*  This  has  not,  however,  prevented  the  North  Eastern  from  putting 
into  operation  for  certain  mineral  traffic  a  sliding  scale  of  rates,  which 
appears  to  work  well  and  give  satisfaction.  The  rates  rise  and  fall 
automatically,  according  to  whether  the  trade  in  the  minerals  concerned 
is  good  or  bad.  The  North  Eastern,  which  has  its  own  district  to  itself, 
no  doubt  has  facilities  for  making  experiments,  which  other  railways 
have  so  far  not  possessed.  Sliding  scales  of  rates  are,  however,  so 
obviously  fair  that  other  companies  might  well  consider  whether,  now 
that  common  action  has  been  so  much  facilitated  by  the  agreements 
with  one  another  into  which  they  have  lately  entered,  it  might  not  be 
possible  to  introduce  a  considerable  number  of  rates  arranged  on  a 
sliding  scale.  Such  a  step  might  just  possibly  be  followed  by  a  sliding 
scale  of  wages  for  the  railway  servants,  and  railway  finances  in  this 
manner  assimilated  somewhat  more  closely  to  the  financial  conditions, 
which  obtain  in  the  great  organised  trades. 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND    105 

a  state  of  affairs  is  no  doubt  deplorable,  but  certainly 
it  has  played  some  part  in  tlie  fixing  of  rates. 

Rates,  again,  are  frequently  arranged  so  as  to 
increase  the  area  whence  supplies  are  brought  to  a 
given  centre.  To  effect  this,  the  rates  on  commo- 
dities despatched  to  this  centre  are  often  very  little 
more,  if  they  come  from  great  distances,  than  if  they 
come  from  comparatively  short  distances — the  differ- 
ence in  the  rates  is,  at  any  rate,  much  less  than  the 
difference  in  the  distances.  As  the  actual  transport 
—apart  from  terminal  expenses — must  cost  the  railway 
a  sum  more  or  less  proportional  to  the  distance  tra- 
versed, there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  commodities 
which  come  from  furthest  off  receive  in  a  manner  pre- 
ferential treatment,  but,  the  area  of  supply  being 
increased,  the  consumer  gets  a  greater  choice,  and  in 
this  manner  the  public  interest  is  served. 

These  are  perhaps  the  most  important  general 
principles  on  which  rates  are  fixed.  But  beyond  them 
a  great  many  factors  come  into  play,  and  rates  have  to 
be  determined  upon  a  close  consideration  of  all  the 
facts  of  any  given  case. 

A  discussion,  which  is  constantly  arising,  is  upon 
the  question  whether  the  railways,  in  order  to  secure 
the  carriage  of  goods,  which  they  would  otherwise  not 
get  at  all,  are  justified  in  carrying  them  at  rates  lower 
than  those  at  which  they  carry  the  same  sort  of  goods, 
which  must  in  any  case  pass  over  their  lines.  If  it  is 
a  question  of  utilising  the  rolling  stock  for  a  very  small 
return,  or  leaving  it  idle,  it  may  be  more  profitable  for 
the  railway  to  accept  very  low  rates  indeed,  in  order 
to  earn  something  on  its  capital,  instead  of  nothing. 
And  as,  by  hypothesis,  if  the  railways  did  not  grant 


106        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

the  low  rates,  rates  equally  low  would  be  granted  by 
some  other  means  of  transport — for  instance,  steamers 
— it  can  hardly  be  contended  that  the  goods  in  question 
receive,  in  this  manner,  unduly  favourable  treatment. 
The  principle  of  giving  reduction  on  a  quantity 
has  often  led  to  very  bitter  complaints  against  the 
railways  on  the  part  of  persons  who  fail  to  supply  large 
consignments,  or  who  are  refused  a  reduction  because 
they  deliver  their  consignments  to  the  railway  company 
in  such  a  form  that  only  a  comparatively  small  amount 
can  be  transported  in  each  vehicle  used.  To  judge 
from  the  newspapers,  complaints  in  regard  to  the  rates 
charged  on  British  railways  for  the  carriage  of  farm 
produce  are  more  frequent  and  bitter  than  those  in 
regard  to  anything  else.  It  is  said  that  foreign  farm 
produce  gets  the  benefit  of  rates  so  much  lower  than 
those  granted  to  British  produce  that  the  former 
receives  an  undue  preference  in  the  markets  of  this 
country.  In  vain  do  the  railways  point  out  that,  if 
the  British  farmers  would  supply  consignments  as 
large  as  those  coming  from  abroad,  and  packed  in  a 
way  which  would  enable  them  to  load  a  wagon  to  its 
full  capacity,  there  is  absolutely  nothing  that  would 
cause  them  so  much  pleasure  as  to  give  the  British 
producer  rates  as  low  as  those  of  which  the  foreign  pro- 
ducer receives  the  benefit.  Apparently,  the  British 
producer  will  neither  pack  his  goods  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  make  them  easy  to  handle,  nor  join  with  his 
neighbours  in  providing  large  consignments.  The 
farmers  go  on  complaining  of  the  rates  and  the  railways 
go  on  complaining  of  the  obstinacy  of  the  farmers,  and 
there  at  present  the  matter  seems  to  rest.  It  is, 
perhaps,  possible  that  there  is  sense  on  both  sides.  The 


KAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND     107 

position  of  the  railways  is  certainly  clear  and  intelli- 
gible, and  it  is  by  no  means  unlikely  that  the  British 
farmer  gains  more  by  avoiding  the  expense  of  elabo- 
rately packing  his  goods,  and  by  being  able  to  send 
off  small  quantities  at  any  moment  he  finds  convenient, 
than  he  loses  in  the  extra  railway  rates.  But,  under 
the  circumstances,  he  cannot  reasonably  expect  to 
receive  the  benefit  of  the  same  rates  as  apply  to  foreign 
goods,  which  are  forwarded  under  conditions  much 
more  onerous  to  their  consignors. 

Owing  to  the  policy,  which  has  been  pursued  in 
England,  of  allowing  a  railway  to  be  built  anywhere, 
where  a  reasonable  demand  existed,  by  any  one  who 
would  undertake  to  do  it,  the  number  of  different  com- 
panies, which  have  come  into  existence,  is  very  great. 
Many  of  them  have  gradually  been  absorbed  by  the 
bigger  companies,  but  a  large  number  of  minor  com- 
panies still  exist,  of  more  than  a  few  of  which  most 
people  do  not  know  the  names.  And  this  is  not  all, 
for  the  lines  worked  by  the  larger  companies  comprise 
many  sections  built,  and  still  owned,  by  independent 
companies,  and  there  are  also  the  numerous  lines 
owned  jointly  by  two  or  more  of  the  big  companies. 
Over  nearly  all  these  the  traffic  is  given  through  rates 
and  fares,  which  have  to  be  apportioned  between  the 
various  companies,  which  own  and  work  the  different 
lines.  This  apportionment  is  a  work  of  great  compli- 
cation, and,  to  carry  it  out,  a  central  body,  independent 
of  all  the  beneficiaries,  becomes  practically  a  necessity. 
The  body  on  whom  this  gigantic  labour  falls  is  the 
Kail  way  Clearing  House,  an  institution  which  has 
grown  up  with  the  railways  themselves,  and,  per- 
haps for  this  reason,  performs  its  work  with  such 


108        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

mathematical  precision  as   to    give    its    clients    the 
nearest  approach  to  complete  satisfaction. 

The  question  of  the  development  of  canal  traffic 
has  in  recent  years  come  very  much  to  the  fore,  and  a 
Royal  Commission,  whose  report  has  lately  been  issued, 
was  appointed  to  investigate  the  matter.  Many 
people  are  under  the  impression  that,  if  canals  were 
properly  developed,  they  would  at  least  provide  a  means 
of  transport  for  minerals  and  non-perishable  goods 
consigned  in  bulk  much  cheaper  than  railway  trans- 
port. In  various  Continental  countries  canals  are 
much  more  highly  developed  than  they  are  in  Great 
Britain,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  traffic  of  such 
countries  as  France  and  Germany  is  carried  over  the 
inland  waterways.  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  however, 
that  the  natural  facilities  for  inland  water-borne  traffic 
are  in  many  parts  of  the  Continent  much  greater  than 
they  are  here  in  Great  Britain,  owing  to  the  existence 
there  of  great  navigable  rivers,  and  to  the  flatness  of 
large  areas  of  country,  which  makes  the  construction 
of  canals  easy,  and  much  reduces  the  difficulties  of 
keeping  them  supplied  with  water.  Instead  of  navi- 
gable rivers,  nature  has  provided  Great  Britain  with 
a  much  longer  and  more  convenient  coast  line  than 
her  Continental  neighbours  possess,  and  this  extra 
length  of  coast  line  far  more  than  compensates  for  the 
very  small  amount  of  navigable  river  which  she  has. 
But,  while  Great  Britain  is  naturally  much  less  well 
suited  than  some  other  countries  for  the  inland  carriage 
of  goods  by  water,  a  still  more  formidable  obstacle  to 
the  development  of  canals  is  found  in  the  conditions 
of  trading  which  obtain  in  this  country.  To  such  a 
pitch  of  perfection  have  the  railway  facilities  attained 


RAILWAYS  OF  CENTRAL  ENGLAND     109 

that  the  inland  transport  of  commodities  in  bulk  has 
been  reduced  to  very  small  dimensions.  Almost  all 
commodities  and  articles  of  commerce  are  stored  or 
warehoused  in  bulk  at  some  large  centre  (very  often 
a  big  port,  whither  they  have  been  brought  by  sea, 
either  coastwise  or  from  foreign  countries),  and  the 
smaller  points  of  distribution  throughout  the  country 
are  kept  supplied  from  these  large  centres  with  small 
consignments  sent  off  exactly  as  they  are  wanted  by 
trains  travelling  at  considerable  speeds.  Now,  canal 
transport  is  necessarily  slow  and  best  suited  to  the 
transport  of  goods  in  bulk — i.e.  it  is  just  the  opposite 
of  what  British  traders  have  grown  accustomed  to — 
and  any  considerable  increase  of  canal  traffic  would 
have  to  be  accompanied  by  a  change  in  the  conditions 
of  trading  which  are  now  current.  This  must  obviously 
be  so  difficult  to  effect  that,  unless  some  great  economic 
advantage  could  confidently  be  looked  forward  to  from 
increasing  the  amount  of  canal  traffic,  it  would  pro- 
bably be  better  to  spend  any  money  that  might  be 
available  upon  further  development  of  the  railways  in 
preference  to  spending  it  on  canals. 

The  peculiar  conditions,  under  which  British  goods 
and  mineral  traffic  is  carried  on,  are  borne  witness  to 
by  the  design  of  the  standard  British  goods  engine. 
By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  long-distance  goods  and 
mineral  traffic  is  worked  by  engines  of  quite  moderate 
power,  with  6  wheels,  all  coupled,  and  designed  in 
such  a  way  that  they  can  be  run  safely  at  fairly  high 
speeds — they  have  a  comparatively  long  wheel-base, 
a  short  overhang  at  either  end,  and  inside  cylinders. 
In  recent  years  some  British  railways  have  adopted  a 
certain  number  of  8-coupled  engines,  but  the  Midland, 


110        KAILWAYS  OF  GKEAT  BRITAIN 

which  probably  has  the  largest  mineral  traffic  of  any 
British  line,  still  works  it  all  with  6-coupled  engines. 
Very  different  is  the  case  on  the  Continent  and  in 
America.  On  the  Continent  8-coupled  engines  were 
common  from  very  early  days,  and  now  the  heaviest 
trains  are  worked  by  10-coupled  engines,  while 
engines  with  two  groups  of  6-coupled  wheels  are  not 
unknown.  In  America  there  has  of  late  years  appa- 
rently been  a  sort  of  competition  between  many  of  the 
principal  railways  as  to  which  should  build  the  biggest 
engines,  with  the  result  that,  in  order  to  make  the 
engines  bigger  and  bigger,  more  and  more  wheels  have 
been  added,  till  some  of  the  latest  specimens  rest  on 
24  wheels  and  weigh  something  like  250  tons  without 
the  tender. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   WEST   COAST 

The  Engines  of  the  Caledonian  Railway — Speed  of  Passenger  Trains — 
Performances  of  the  Engines  of  the  Chemin  de  f er  du  Nord — Water 
Troughs — Compound  Engines — Frequency  of  Long-Distance  Pas- 
senger Trains — North  Western  Railway — Caledonian  Railway — 
Docks — Coal  Traffic — Glasgow  Central  Station — Highland  Railway. 

IN  the  course  of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  the  engines 
of  the  Caledonian  Railway  have  at  various  times  been 
called  upon  to  perform  feats  of  so  spectacular  a  nature 
that  the  successful  accomplishment  of  these  feats  may 
be  said  to  have  opened  new  eras  in  the  history  of  the 
locomotive.  When  considering  the  express  train  service 
of  the  Caledonian  one  is,  therefore,  inclined  to  think  of 
this  company  as  different  from  other  companies,  and 
to  judge  it  according  to  a  higher  standard.  The  per- 
formances in  1888  of  the  single  wheel  engine,  No.  123, 
were  the  foundation  of  the  Caledonian  engines'  great 
reputation,  and  the  fame  of  No.  123  may  be  matched 
with  that  of  the  Great  Northern  8  ft.  singles,  and  the 
old  broad  gauge  singles  of  the  Great  Western.  She  had 
a  leading  bogie,  driving  wheels  7  ft.  in  diameter,  and  a 
small  pair  of  wheels  under  the  foot-plate,  and  inside 
cylinders.  She  weighed  42  tons,  of  which  17  tons  were 
upon  the  driving  wheels.  The  grate  area  was  17  sq.  ft. 
At  the  time  she  was  constructed  the  building  of  new 
single  engines  had  almost  ceased,  and  no  engines  of 


112        KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

precisely  her  type  had  ever  yet  been  seen.  In  1888,  a 
year  or  two  after  she  made  her  appearance,  the  race  to 
Edinburgh  took  place,  and  she  was  chosen  to  work  the 
West  Coast  train  from  Carlisle  to  Edinburgh.  The 
train  was  a  particularly  light  one — about  80  tons 
without  engine  and  tender — but  only  112  minutes  were 
allowed  for  the  lOOf  miles,  and  on  the  way  the  Beattock 
bank  had  to  be  ascended.  Now,  of  all  the  obstacles 
which  British  engines  are  called  upon  to  surmount, 
the  Beattock  bank — 10  miles,  averaging  1  in  80,  the 
last  6  of  which  are  1  in  75 — is  the  particular  one,  which 
in  popular  estimation  is  held  to  impose  the  greatest  test 
upon  the  locomotive,  so  that  to  put  a  single  engine, 
which  most  people  regarded  as  an  obsolescent  type  of 
machine,  to  haul  over  such  a  road  a  train,  to  which  the 
attention  of  the  whole  country  was  directed,  was  to 
place  her  in  a  position  of  such  prominence  that  her 
success,  if  achieved,  must  make  the  deepest  possible 
impression.  And  No.  123  succeeded.  Day  after  day 
she  performed  the  journey  well  under  booked  time,  and, 
what  was  more,  her  uphill  work  was  better  than  her 
downhill  work.  Downhill  she  does  not  appear  to  have 
attained  any  remarkable  speeds,  in  spite  of  the  exist- 
ence of  long  stretches  of  favourable  line,  where  she 
certainly  could,  if  put  to  it,  have  attained  very  high 
speeds  indeed.  But  it  was  uphill  principally  that  she 
proved  her  mettle — she  made  light  work  of  the  Beattock 
bank,  and  then  all  the  world  rubbed  their  eyes  and 
began  to  see  that  the  single  engine  had  been,  perhaps, 
over-hastily  abandoned.  Looked  at  from  this  distance 
of  time,  and  in  the  light  of  subsequent  experience,  the 
performances  of  No.  123,  although  certainly  good,  do 
not  appear  by  any  means  so  marvellous  as  they 


THE  WEST  COAST  113 

appeared  in  1888.  They  were,  in  fact,  just  what  might 
be  expected  from  a  properly  designed  engine  of  that 
sort,  in  the  hands  of  a  competent  driver  and  a  competent 
fireman.  But,  none  the  less,  they  made  a  profound 
impression,  and,  although,  curiously  enough,  No.  123 
was  the  only  engine  of  her  precise  design  ever  built, 
she  was  the  forerunner  of  a  large  number  of  single 
engines  of  the  same  general  type,  which  were  built  for 
a  good  many  of  the  principal  English  lines  in  the  course 
of  the  next  dozen  years.  Far  more  remarkable  still, 
than  the  performances  of  No.  123,  were  the  doings  in 
1895  (during  and  after  the  race  to  Aberdeen),  and  in 
1896,  of  the  four- coupled  express  engines.  Taking 
everything  into  consideration,  the  main  line  of  the 
Caledonian  is  more  difficult  than  any  other  main  line 
in  Great  Britain  over  which  any  50-mile-an-hour 
trains  are  run — the  gradients  are  exceptionally  severe, 
and  there  are  a  number  of  places  where  speed  has  to 
be  reduced  from  motives  of  safety.  Yet  it  was  the 
performances  of  the  Caledonian  engines  over  this  line 
that  first  showed  how  60  miles  an  hour,  start  to  stop, 
could  be  achieved  by  an  express  train  of  moderate 
weight  as  reasonably  as  it  had,  up  to  then,  been  held 
that  50  miles  an  hour  could  be  achieved.  Remember- 
ing this,  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  best  present- 
day  trains  of  the  Caledonian  are  disappointing.  There 
have  been,  it  is  true,  in  fairly  recent  times  one  or  two 
trains  a  day  timed  to  cover  the  exceptionally  easy 
32i  miles  from  Forfar  to  Perth  in  32  minutes  *  ;  and 
over  other  lengths  there  are  a  certain  number  of  runs 

*  As  these  trains  used,  till  quite  lately,  to  appear  regularly  in  the 
statistical  lists  of  fastest  runs,  I  suppose  they  existed.  They  were  quite 
unrecognisable  in  Bradshaw. 

I 


114        EAILWAYS  OF  GEE  AT  BRITAIN 

at  between  50  and  55  miles  an  hour.  And  many  of 
the  trains  are  heavy,  and  there  are,  almost  everywhere, 
the  severe  gradients  to  be  faced.  But,  for  all  this, 
better  things  might  be  expected  of  a  line,  which  has 
given  evidence  of  possessing  such  exceptional  enter- 
prise when  a  great  occasion  arises  to  call  it  forth. 
Compare  the  timing  of  the  best  train  to  the  Highlands 
to-day  with  what  was  done  quite  easily  one  night  in 
July,  1895,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  race  to  Aberdeen, 
when  I  happened  to  be  travelling  from  Euston  to  Perth 
by  the  8  p.m.  train.  The  fastest  existing  train  (7.45  p.m. 
from  Euston)  reaches  Perth  in  9  hours,  with  stops  at 
Crewe  and  Carlisle  only,  and  maintains  an  average 
speed  of  49j  miles  an  hour  from  Carlisle  to  Perth.  The 
train  of  1895,  with  an  extra  stop  of  3  minutes  at 
Stirling,  reached  Perth  in  22  minutes  less  time ;  and 
this  was  long  before  the  West  Coast  engines  were  being 
at  all  pressed.  The  North  Western  ran  to  Carlisle  at 
quite  a  moderate  speed,  but  the  Caledonian  engine, 
which  then  came  on,  ran  to  Stirling  at  an  average 
start-to-stop  speed  of  just  upon  55  miles  an  hour,  and 
thence  to  Perth  at  over  54 ;  and,  even  so,  the  per- 
formances of  engines  of  the  same  class  a  few  weeks 
later,  to  say  nothing  of  the  work  of  the — only  rather 
more  powerful — "  Dunalastairs  "  in  1896  showed  how 
much  she  must  still  have  had  in  hand.  The  "  Duna- 
lastairs," which  astonished  the  world  in  their  youth, 
still  are  there,  and  have  been  reinforced  by  numerous 
classes  of  engines  of  the  same  type,  but  more  powerful 
and  more  perfect,  to  say  nothing  of  the  six-coupled 
machines,  which  are  used  for  the  very  heaviest  trains. 
And,  if  called  upon  to  equal  or  surpass  the  doings  of 
their  predecessors,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  Caledonian 


THE  WEST  COAST  115 

drivers  of  the  present  day  would  not  be  found  wanting. 
Not  long  ago,  indeed,  I  was  able  to  satisfy  myself  that 
it  is  only  necessary  to  provide  an  opportunity,  and  the 
Caledonian  locomotive  department  will  appear  to  quite 
as  great  advantage  at  the  present  time  as  it  ever  did  in 
years  gone  by.  On  the  occasion  in  question,  one  of 
the  new  4-4-0  engines,  fitted  with  a  Schmidt  super- 
heater, was  working  the  evening  express  from  Aberdeen 
with  the  rather  unusually  heavy  load  of  335  tons 
(exclusive  of  engine  and  tender).  The  weight  of  engine 
and  tender  in  full  working  order  is  115  tons,  so,  making 
allowance  for  the  fact  that  the  tender's  supplies  both  of 
coal  and  of  water  were  partly  exhausted,  the  weight 
of  the  two  may  be  put  at  100  tons  ;  this  makes  the  total 
moving  weight  435  tons.  The  train  is  timed  to  run  the 
32i  miles  from  Forfar  to  Perth  in  34  minutes.  Forfar 
station,  standing  as  it  does,  on  a  sharp  curve,  is  rather 
an  awkward  place  to  start  from,  so  it  took  some  time 
to  get  into  speed,  but,  when  speed  had  once  been 
attained,  18  miles  of  slightly  undulating  line,  which  is 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  dead  level,  were  run  in 
16  minutes  27  seconds,  which  is  just  65  f  miles  an  hour. 
Assuming  the  resistance  of  the  train  to  have  been 
normal,  the  engine  must,  all  this  time,  have  been 
developing  about  1370  horse-power,  which,  for  a 
machine  of  her  size,  is  a  remarkable  sustained  effort. 
It  may  further  be  noted  that  steam  pressure  was  easily 
maintained  all  the  time  at  about  blowing-off  point,  no 
special  preparations  had  been  made,  and  the  engine 
was  at  the  end  of  a  long  day's  work,  so  the  performance 
must  be  regarded  as  one  which  she  is  normally  capable 
of  repeating  whenever  required.  For  the  last  8  miles 
or  so  into  Perth  the  line  is  on  a  fairly  steep  falling 


116        KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

gradient.  Here  the  good  work  continued,  and,  by  the 
time  the  regulator  was  shut,  preparatory  to  a  rather 
slow  stop  at  Perth,  the  speed  had  very  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  reached  80  miles  an  hour.  (I  timed  |  a  mile  in 
22  ir  seconds,  but  did  not  get  the  intervening  post. 
Half  a  mile  in  22 1  seconds  is  80  miles  an  hour.)  The 
whole  run  was  completed  in  a  second  or  two  less  than 
33  minutes. 

The  natural  energies  of  the  Caledonian  locomotive 
department  were  originally  put  under  restraint  by  the 
agreement,  reached  in  1896,  which  forbade  the  East 
Coast  and  West  Coast  trains  to  reach  their  destinations 
in  less  than  such  and  such  a  time  from  leaving  London, 
but  at  the  present  time  the  policy  of  the  Caledonian 
management  is  to  go  even  further,  and  very  strongly 
to  discountenance  any  acceleration  of  any  long- 
distance train  ;  and  this  they  do,  not  merely  because 
they  are  bound  by  an  agreement,  but  also  because  they 
regard  such  acceleration  as  undesirable  in  itself,  on 
account  of  the  greater  expense  involved  by  higher 
speed,  and  the  greater  chances  of  unpunctuality,  which 
they  believe  would  exist.  I  venture  to  regard  this 
policy  (which  is  by  no  means  peculiar  to  the  Caledonian, 
but  may,  at  the  present  time,  be  regarded  as  the  accepted 
policy  of  nearly  every  railway  in  Great  Britain)  as  a 
completely  mistaken  one. 

If  the  character  of  the  road  and  the  speed  alone  are 
considered,  and  the  size  of  the  engine,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  weight  of  the  train  on  the  other,  are  left  out 
of  account,  never  since  1896  has  there  been  any  loco- 
motive work  in  Great  Britain  to  compare  with  that 
performed  by  the  Caledonian  engines  in  that  year. 
The  8  p.m.  from  Euston  was  given  125  minutes  between 


THE  WEST  COAST  117 

Carlisle  and  Stirling  (117f  miles),  and  not  infrequently 
this  run  was  actually  performed  at  an  average  speed  of 
about  60  miles  an  hour.  Elsewhere  isolated  runs  have 
been  performed  in  better  time,  and  more  powerful 
engines  with  heavier  trains  have  exerted  much  greater 
horse-power  ;  but,  for  high-speed  work,  done  day  after 
day,  over  difficult  road,  these  performances  stand 
unique.  The  next  most  remarkable  regular  work  that 
has  been  seen  in  Great  Britain  was  probably  that  of 
the  best  Leicester  and  Sheffield  trains  on  the  Great 
Central,  which,  over  a  road  much  easier  than  that  of 
the  Caledonian,  used  for  a  time  to  maintain  unusually 
high  speeds  for  long  distances  together.  But  this  also 
has  long  ceased.  The  nearest  approach  to  the  old 
Caledonian  timing  that  now  exists,  over  a  road  at  all 
comparable  in  difficulty,  is  the  South  Western's  run 
(suppressed  from  October,  1912,  but  re-introduced  in 
July,  1913)  of  88  miles  from  Salisbury  to  Exeter  in 
96  minutes.  But,  to  equal  the  actual  work  of  the 
Caledonian  engines  in  1896,  the  South  Western  would 
have  from  time  to  time  to  perform  this  run  in  from  87 
to  90  minutes.  My  own  experiences  over  the  length  in 
question  certainly  do  not  lead  me  to  suppose  that  this 
is  ever  done.  In  Great  Britain,  indeed,  for  the  last 
seven  or  eight  years,  there  has  been  a  complete  dearth 
of  any  really  remarkable  performances  in  the  way  of 
long-sustained  high  speed,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  during  that  period  there  have  been  built  a  very 
large  number  of  engines,  much  more  powerful  than 
those  previously  in  use.  Some  very  remarkable  work 
in  the  way  of  hauling  extremely  heavy  trains  at  fair 
speeds  is  from  time  to  time  recorded,  but  when,  as  is 
even  now  constantly  happening,  one  of  the  biggest 


118        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

engines  gets  a  light  train,  or  one  of  moderate  weight, 
no  attempt  is  made  to  utilise  her  great  power  to  attain 
really  high  average  speeds. 

My  own  experiences,  as  regards  high  speed  work  in 
Great  Britain  are,  I  say  with  deep  regret,  of  the  most 
dismal  kind.  Circumstances  prevented  me  from  ever 
travelling  behind  the  Caledonian  or  Great  Central 
engines  during  the  comparatively  short  periods  when 
the  speeds  of  these  lines  were  at  their  zenith,  so,  no 
doubt,  I  entirely  missed  the  greatest  opportunities. 
As  it  is,  on  only  one  occasion  on  a  British  railway  have 
I  ever  taken  part  in  a  start-to-stop  run  at  over  60  miles 
an  hour,  and  this  was  not  till  1912,  when  a  slip-carriage, 
in  which  I  was  travelling,  came  to  a  stand  at  Westbury 
58  mins.  41  sees,  after  the  train,  to  which  it  was 
attached,  had  left  Reading,  59-J-  miles  away.  As 
regards  maximum  speed,  only  about  three  times  have 
I  ever  in  Great  Britain  noted  an  undoubted  speed  of 
80  miles  an  hour,  and  my  best  sustained  burst  of  high 
speed  was  as  long  ago  as  1897,  when  one  of  the  smaller 
Midland  singles,  with  a  train  of  about  120  tons,  ran 
10  miles  downhill,  between  Leagrave  and  Bedford,  in 
7  mins.  40  sees. — 78|  miles  an  hour.  Perhaps  I  have 
been  unfortunate  in  my  experiences,  but  anyhow  I 
cannot  regard  what  I  have  seen  as  other  than  a  meagre 
result  of  twenty  years'  fairly  close  observation  of  the 
working  of  the  trains  in  which  I  have  travelled. 

The  surmounting  of  steep  gradients  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  engine  power.  With  a  sufficiently  powerful 
engine  it  would  be  just  as  possible  to  run  at  80  miles 
an  hour  up  1  in  100  as  down  1  in  100.  With  another 
form  of  obstruction,  however — sharp  curves — it  is  in 
practice  always  necessary  to  slow  down  from  motives 


THE  WEST  COAST  119 

of  safety.  Theoretically,  it  is  possible  to  lay  the  line 
with  the  outside  rail  so  much  higher  than  the  inside 
rail  as  to  balance  the  tendency  of  the  train  to  topple 
over,  but,  when  a  curve  is  at  all  sharp,  the  necessary 
tilt  is  so  great  as  to  be  actually  unattainable,  and  there 
is  nothing  for  it  but  to  slacken  speed.  Fortunately, 
most  of  the  great  main  lines  in  Great  Britain  have  been 
built  without  very  many  sharp  curves.  Great  Western 
trains  can  run  all  the  way  from  Paddington  to  Bath 
before  encountering  any  curve  where  caution  is  neces- 
sary, and  there  are  a  good  many  stretches  of  50  miles 
or  more  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  which  are  equally 
free  from  curves.  But,  though  British  main  lines 
probably  suffer  less  from  curves  than  those  of  any  other 
country,  and  where  the  lines,  or  at  any  rate  the  main 
lines,  pass  through  open  country,  sharp  curves  have 
generally  been  avoided,  there  are  all  too  many  places, 
where  the  expense  or  the  difficulty  of  getting  land  in  or 
near  towns,  has  made  it  necessary  to  introduce  them. 
Consider  the  main  line  of  the  Great  Eastern.  The  first 
biggish  town  after  leaving  London  is  Chelmsford,  which 
is  on  a  sharp  curve  ;  the  next  is  Colchester,  also  on  a 
sharp  curve  ;  the  next  Ipswich,  on  a  sharp  curve,  and 
the  worst  curve  of  all  is  where,  just  outside  Norwich, 
the  line  turns  off  towards  Cromer.  It  is,  of  course, 
accurately  known  what  are  the  safe  speeds  over  curves 
of  varying  degrees  of  sharpness,  and  the  limit  pre- 
scribed always  gives  an  enormous  margin  of  safety — in 
one  way  too  great  a  margin  ;  for  the  drivers,  knowing 
that  the  margin  is  very  great,  may  be  tempted  not  to 
observe  the  limit,  more  particularly  if,  as  is  generally 
the  case,  there  is  no  speed  indicator  on  the  engine,  and 
no  method  of  ascertaining  afterwards  what  the  speed 


120        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

really  was,  unless  the  train  has  been  specially  timed  by 
some  one  with  a  stop-watch.  Some  years  ago  there 
existed  on  one  of  our  most  frequented  main  lines  a 
curve,  some  distance  before  which  there  was  the  usual 
notice  board  announcing  in  large  letters  that  the  speed 
limit  was  20  miles  an  hour.  I  once  sat  for  three  hours, 
timing  the  speed  of  the  trains,  as  they  rounded  this 
curve.  The  fastest  train  took  it  at  48  miles  an  hour, 
and  the  slowest  at  28  miles  an  hour.  On  another 
occasion  I  was  on  the  engine  of  one  of  the  principal 
expresses,  and  we  ran  a  distance  of  just  upon  2  miles, 
with  this  curve  in  the  middle  of  it,  in  2  mins.  9  sees. 
The  curve  in  question  now  exists  no  more  in  its  primitive 
sharpness — it  has  since  been  reconstructed — but  when 
one  thinks  of  the  awful  accidents  which  have  taken 
place  owing  to  the  proper  speeds  having  been  exceeded 
on  curves,  it  is  felt  that  no  precaution  can  be  too 
elaborate  to  ensure  that,  where  speed  limits  are  pre- 
scribed, they  shall  also  be  respected.  In  saying  this, 
I  am  by  no  means  condemning  high  speeds  on  suit- 
able parts  of  the  line  (i.e.  everywhere,  except  those 
places  where  curves,  or  other  obstructions — swing- 
bridges,  for  instance — exist,  which  make  high  speeds 
dangerous).  On  the  contrary,  it  is  certain  that  some 
absolutely  reliable  method  of  ensuring  a  suitable 
reduction  of  speed  on  sharp  curves  would  remove  the 
last  lingering  objection  to  really  high  speeds  every- 
where else.  Who  shall  say  how  many  centuries  of 
unnecessary  sitting  in  railway  carriages  the  units 
forming  the  travelling  public  have  collectively  endured, 
owing  to  the  fact  that,  one  night  in  July,  1896,  the  pre- 
cautions against  excessive  speed  on  curves  taken  by 
the  North  Western  were  insufficient  to  prevent  the 


THE  WEST  COAST  121 

drivers  of  the  two  engines  hauling  the  8  p.m.  Scotch 
express,  from  miming  their  train  off  the  line  just  north 
of  Preston  station  ?  The  summer  before  that  unlucky 
accident  took  place  there  had  been  some  real  attempt 
on  the  part  both  of  the  East  Coast  and  West  Coast 
companies,  in  the  race  to  Aberdeen  to  show  how  much, 
in  the  way  of  speed,  their  various  engines  could  achieve, 
and  these  achievements  were  really  remarkable,  and 
opened  up  possibilities  before  unrealised,  if  not  un- 
dreamt of.*  The  autumn  of  that  year  brought  the 

*  The  best  runs  on  the  West  Coast  were  those  of  a  2-4-0  North  Wes- 
tern engine,  from  Crewe  to  Carlisle,  at  a  little  over  67  miles  an  hour,  and 
of  a  4-4-0  Caledonian  engine,  from  Perth  to  Aberdeen,  at  something 
under  67  miles  an  hour — each  with  a  train  of  about  70  tons.  On  the 
East  Coast,  with  a  train  of  about  100  tons,  a  Great  Northern  8  ft.  single 
ran  from  Grantham  to  York  at  over  65  miles  an  hour,  and  a  North 
Eastern  4-4-0  engine  from  Newcastle  to  Edinburgh  at  about  66  miles 
an  hour.  A  North  British  4-4-0  engine  performed  the  very  difficult 
run  from  Edinburgh  to  Dundee,  with  about  90  tons,  at  60  miles  an  hour. 
The  best  West  Coast  run  for  the  entire  distance  (540  miles)  was  8  hours 
32  minutes.  The  best  East  Coast  run  was  8  hours  40  minutes  for  523| 
miles.  An  examination  of  the  details  of  the  West  Coast  run  shows  pretty 
conclusively  that  the  time  for  the  whole  distance  could  have  been  reduced 
to  less  than  8J  hours.  The  road  from  Euston  to  Crewe  is  so  much  easier 
than  that  from  Crewe  to  Carlisle  that  there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt 
that  an  engine  of  the  same  type  as  that  used  between  Crewe  and  Carlisle, 
and  driven  as  hard,  could  have  run  the  158  miles  at  an  average  start-to- 
stop  speed  of  70  miles  an  hour.  This  would  have  involved  a  saving  of  13 
minutes  on  the  time  actually  taken  from  Euston  to  Crewe.  Then,  on 
the  Caledonian,  the  section  from  Carlisle  to  Perth,  which,  on  this  occasion 
only,  was  run  without  a  stop,  took  practically  as  long  as  it  had  taken 
the  night  before,  when  a  stop  was  made  at  Stirling,  and  there  was  an  extra 
carriage  on  the  train.  Possibly  the  elimination  of  the  Stirling  stop 
was  as  broad  as  it  was  long,  for  it  seems  likely  (though  I  do  not  know 
this)  that  the  driver  was  hampered  by  the  fear  of  not  having  water 
enough  to  complete  the  run,  and  so  could  not  give  the  engine  all  the 
steam  she  would  take.  If  my  surmise  is  correct,  and  if  a  stop  for  water 
had  been  made  (preferably  at  Symington,  or  Carstairs,  instead  of  Stirling) 
so  that  the  engine  could  have  been  run  as  hard  as  she  would  go  the  whole 


122        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

11.50  p.m.  from  Euston,  timed  to  reach  Glasgow 
(401-J-  miles)  in  8  hours,*  and  stopping  only  at  Crewe, 
Carlisle,  and  Eglinton  Street,  a  great  improvement 
on  any  train  to  Glasgow  that  had  existed  up  to  then. 
The  winter  passed  by,  and,  when  the  time-tables  for 
July,  1896,  came  out,  it  appeared  that,  among  other 
greatly  improved  trains  on  both  East  and  West  Coast 
routes,  the  West  Coast  companies  had  so  timed  the 
8  p.m.  from  Euston  that,  in  point  of  speed  over  hilly 
country,  it  was  by  far  the  most  remarkable  regular 
train,  that  had,  up  to  then,  been  seen  anywhere.  It 
did  not  begin  very  fast,  but,  from  the  time  it  left 
Wigan  to  the  time  it  stopped  at  Perth,  it  was  to  per- 
form each  of  the  three  exceptionally  hilly  stages, 
Wigan-Carlisle,  Carlisle-Stirling,  and  Stirling-Perth,  at 
over  56  miles  an  hour  start-to-stop,  while,  for  the  next 
— rather  easier — stage  to  Forfar,  the  start-to-stop  speed 
was  over  60  miles  an  hour — 32|  miles  in  32  minutes. 
And,  good  as  these  speeds  were  on  paper,  it  is  certain 
that  the  intention  was  that  performance  should  be 
better  than  promise,  and  it  really  looked  as  though  the 
East  and  West  Coast  companies  had  grasped  the  idea 
that  it  was  desirable  radically  to  accelerate  their  best 
trains.  But  then  occurred  the  Preston  accident ;  for 
that  part  of  its  journey  performed  on  the  North 
Western,  the  8  p.m.  was  re-timed,  the  remarkable  run 

way,  the  reduction  in  the  gross  load  by  about  15  per  cent.,  as  compared 
with  the  previous  night,  should  have  allowed  a  reduction  of  about  5  per 
cent,  in  the  time  taken,  or,  in  other  words,  a  gain  of  about  7  minutes. 
The  East  Coast,  too,  in  spite  of  its  heavier  load,  could  undoubtedly  have 
run  faster  than  it  did,  at  any  rate  south  of  Edinburgh,  though  in  this 
case  it  does  not  happen  to  be  so  easy  to  indicate  what  might  have  been 
expected. 

*  Now  slowed  to  8|  hours,  except  during  the  summer. 


THE  WEST  COAST  123 

from  Wigan  to  Carlisle  ceased,  and  it  was  evident  that 
the  new-born  energy,  which  had  promised  such  great 
things,  had  received  its  death-blow.  The  Caledonian, 
it  is  true,  which  had  just  brought  out  the  "  Dunala- 
stairs," retained  its  timings  unchanged  during  that 
summer  and  autumn,  and  in  practice  often  improved 
upon  them.  Indeed,  the  work  of  the  "  Dunalastairs  " 
with  this  train — work  which  has  already  been  referred 
to — was  so  remarkable  that  they  at  once  made  a  name 
for  themselves  more  celebrated  than  perhaps  any  other 
class  of  British  engine  has  ever  done.  But,  though  the 
:<  Dunalastairs  "  achieved  fame,  their  brilliant  work  was 
but  a  flash  in  the  pan.  The  forces  opposed  to  enter- 
prise seized  their  opportunity  and  triumphed.  An 
agreement  limiting  the  speed  of  the  Scotch  expresses 
was  shortly  reached  between  the  rival  routes ;  by 
December  1,  1896,  the  new  fast  trains  had  been 
slowed  down,  and,  from  that  day  to  this,  the  services 
between  London  and  Scotland  have  never  risen  above 
mediocrity. 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  exaggerate  the  disastrous 
effect,  which  the  slowing  down  of  these  trains  had  upon 
the  development  of  the  passenger  service  in  Great 
Britain.  The  mere  fact  that  it  involved  the  permanent 
deterioration  of  the  Anglo-Scottish  services  is  bad 
enough,  but,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  question 
of  a  great  general  acceleration  of  express  trains  had 
been  forced  to  the  front  by  recent  events,  and  that,  if 
the  Anglo-Scottish  lines  had  retained  their  accelerations, 
other  railways  could  hardly  have  failed  to  follow  suit, 
it  is  evident  that  a  very  heavy  blow  was  dealt  to  the 
cause  of  progress  by  the  withdrawal  of  the  stimulating 
example  of  the  most  prominent  railways  in  the  Kingdom 


124        KAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

under  circumstances  which  to  some  extent  suggested 
panic. 

From  about  this  time,  indeed,  British  express  speeds, 
which  up  to  then  had  easily  been  the  best  in  Europe, 
were  for  some  years  completely  put  into  the  shade  by 
those  of  the  best  French  trains.  The  Nord  led  the  way 
with  whole  series  of  very  remarkable  accelerations,  and 
was  followed  shortly,  on  a  smaller  scale,  by  the  Paris- 
Orleans  and  Midi,  and  subsequently,  at  a  more  or  less 
respectful  distance,  by  the  other  lines.  The  result  was 
that  the  general  level  of  the  speed  of  the  best  French 
expresses  became  markedly  superior  to  that  of  the  best 
British  expresses.  As  far  as  the  Midi  was  concerned, 
the  accelerated  service  did  not  last  very  long.  About 
a  year  after  the  accelerations  had  been  put  into  force, 
a  very  serious  accident  occurred  in  which  the  Sud- 
Express  left  the  rails,  when  travelling  at  a  speed  of 
approximately  75  miles  an  hour.  There  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  any  particular  reason  for  attributing  the 
accident  to  the  speed  at  which  the  train  was  running, 
as  there  was  no  curve  to  cause  it,  and  the  train  had 
passed  the  same  spot  at  about  the  same  speed  every  day, 
or  nearly  every  day,  it  had  run.  Indeed,  the  cause  of 
the  accident  was  so  wrapped  in  mystery  that  many 
people  thought  it  must  have  been  due  to  the  action  of 
criminals,  who  desired  to  wreck  the  train  in  the  hope  of 
securing  some  booty  in  the  subsequent  confusion.  The 
Midi,  nevertheless,  made  haste  to  abandon  its  accelera- 
tions. The  accident,  however,  failed  to  alarm  any  of 
the  other  French  railways,  and,  till  at  least  the  year 
1902,  the  best  French  runs  remained  immeasurably 
superior  to  the  best  British  runs.  From  that  time  the 
British  lines  began  to  make  up  a  certain  amount  of 


THE  AVEST  COAST  125 

leeway,  and,  although  Great  Britain  is  far  from  having 
regained  her  ancient  superiority,  and  further  still  from 
possessing  a  train  service  as  rapid  as  is  desirable,  there 
is  not  at  the  present  time  much  to  choose  in  point  of 
booked  speed  between  the  two  countries,  though,  owing 
to  the  much  more  satisfactory  way  in  which  the  making 
up  of  lost  time  is  taken  in  hand  in  France,  the  work  of 
the  French  locomotives  is  probably  superior,  on  the 
whole,  to  that  of  the  British  locomotives. 

It  is  from  every  point  of  view  most  desirable  to  take 
every  precaution  to  avoid  the  recurrence  of  such  an 
accident  as  that  which  took  place  at  Preston.  It 
would  not  cost  more  than  a  few  pounds  to  put  down, 
at  the  beginning  and  end  of  every  sharp  curve,  clocks 
which  would  automatically  record  the  hour,  minute, 
and  second,  at  which  every  train  passed  these  two 
points,  thereby  giving  a  complete  record  of  the  speed. 
(In  certain  cases,  indeed,  recording  arrangements  of 
this  kind  already  exist.)  In  this  way  it  would  be  easy 
to  ensure  that  no  driver,  who  exceeded  the  speed  limit, 
should  escape  detection,  and,  without  in  any  way 
reflecting  upon  the  caution  and  conscientiousness  of 
engine-drivers,  we  may  assume  that  they  share  in  the 
failings  of  ordinary  mankind,  and  would  be  far  less 
likely  to  commit  transgressions,  which  would  un- 
doubtedly be  detected,  than  transgressions,  which 
would  almost  certainly  not  be  found  out,  as  is  the  case 
where  no  record  is  taken  ;  and,  considering  the  very 
great  importance  of  ensuring  a  sufficient  reduction  of 
speed  on  certain  curves,  it  would  certainly  be  worth 
while  to  spend  a  little  money  towards  this  end. 

Though,  as  already  remarked,  the  present  policy  of 
the  railways  does  not  appear  to  hold  out  any  promise, 


126        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

it  is,  nevertheless,  a  fact  that,  if  the  history  of  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  is  any  guide,  the  time  must  be  at 
hand  for  some  fresh  striking  accelerations  and  high 
speed  performances  in  Great  Britain.  In  1888  took 
place  the  race  to  Edinburgh,  in  1895  the  race  to 
Aberdeen,  followed  by  the  remarkable,  but  abortive, 
accelerations  of  1896,  and  round  about  the  year  1904 
there  was  a  renewed  outburst  of  energy,  comprising 
some  fresh  records  on  the  Western  lines,  and  a  very 
large  number  of  accelerations  in  many  different 
directions.  These  phenomena  have  thus  occurred  at 
intervals  of  approximately  eight  years,  and  another  is 
by  now  overdue.  The  promise  of  the  previous  dis- 
plays having,  in  every  case,  been  followed  by  a  more 
or  less  disappointing  relapse,  succeeded  by  a  long 
period  of  comparative  stagnation,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
next  time  a  decided  step  forward  is  taken,  the  per- 
manent benefit  secured  by  the  travelling  public  will  be 
greater. 

The  whole  subject  of  speed  is  one  which  appears  to 
hurl  railway  managers  into  a  torrent  of  conflicting 
emotions.  It  is  patent  that  practically  every  railway 
attaches  enormous  importance  to  an  extremely  small 
advantage  in  speed  over  any  rival  line.  The  railway, 
which  has  once  established  its  position  as  the  possessor 
of  the  better  route  between  two  large  centres,  always 
clings  with  grim  determination  to  its  advantage  in 
point  of  the  quickest  time  of  the  quickest  train,  which 
is  generally  fixed  at  so  many  minutes  less  than  the  best 
time  of  its  rival ;  and  the  rival,  though  respecting  the 
time  advantage  agreed  upon,  is  never  willing  to  con- 
cede anything  more  than  the  minimum  number  of 
minutes,  unless  he  is  bought  off  by  compensating 


THE  WEST  COAST  127 

advantages  in  some  other  directions.  If  any  changes 
are  made  in  the  times  of  the  fastest  trains,  both  lines 
introduce  the  changes  at  the  same  time,  and  the 
relative  positions  of  the  two  always  remain  very  nearly 
the  same.  In  late  years  this  intense  appreciation,  on 
the  part  of  the  railways,  of  the  value  of  speed,  though 
it  exists  as  strongly  as  ever,  has  in  a  good  many  cases 
been  obscured  by  the  introduction  of  pooling  arrange- 
ments between  lines,  which  used  to  be  rivals,  but  can 
now  no  longer  be  considered  as  such.  The  only 
adequate  explanation  of  the  attitude  towards  one 
another,  which  rival  lines  take  up  in  the  matter  of 
speed,  is  that  railway  travellers  are  believed  to  care  so 
much  for  speed  that  they  will  flock  to  the  faster  line, 
even  though  the  difference  in  time  is  very  small.  The 
North  Western,  in  the  days  before  it  made  its  recent 
agreement  with  the  Midland,  always  considered  that 
it  was  entitled  to  an  advantage  of  five  minutes  over 
that  railway  to  Manchester,  and  the  Midland  allowed 
this  contention.  Some  years  ago,  therefore,  when  the 
Manchester  trains  were  quickened,  and  the  best  North 
Western  time  became  3f  hours,  the  Midland  was  fain 
to  rest  content  with  3  hours  50  minutes,  and,  when,  a 
few  years  later,  the  North  Western  time  was  reduced 
to  3|  hours,  the  Midland  was  still  5  minutes  behind 
with  3  hours  35  minutes.  As  the  North  Western  were 
so  careful  to  insist  upon  this  tiny  advantage,  it  is  clear 
that  it  must  have  had  reasons  for  supposing  that  the 
travelling  public  were  enormously  attracted  by  speed. 
This  being  so,  it  would  appear  to  be  advisable  for  both 
lines  to  offer  their  customers  the  greatest  possible 
measure  of  the  speed,  which  they  prize  so  highly  ;  and 
as  certainly  the  North  Western,  and  probably  the 


128        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

Midland  could,  without  any  particular  difficulty,  reach 
Manchester  in  3  hours,  there  is  considerable  scope  for 
attracting  increased  traffic,  and  swelling  receipts  by 
this  means.  But  not  so.  Side  by  side  with  his  desire 
to  be  ever  so  little  in  front  of  his  rival,  there  resides  in 
the  railway  manager's  breast  a  passion  of  like  intensity, 
which  causes  him  with  all  his  might  to  resist  accelera- 
tions. We  must  suppose  that  the  reason  for  this 
attitude  is  the  belief  that  accelerations  would  not  pay. 
It  is  open  to  the  gravest  doubt  whether  there  is  any 
foundation  for  this  belief.  It  is  universally  acknow- 
ledged that,  when  the  quality  of  any  commodity  is 
improved,  while  the  price  remains  the  same,  the  demand 
for  it  increases.  There  is,  therefore,  excellent  reason 
for  supposing  that,  if  the  railways  improve  their  service 
(which  is  the  commodity  they  sell)  the  demand  will 
increase  (i.e.  more  people  will  travel).  If,  then,  by 
inducing  people  to  travel,  who  would  otherwise  have 
remained  at  home,  a  railway  can  earn  more  in  extra 
fares  than  it  spends  in  securing  the  extra  speed,  it  will 
profit  by  the  transaction.  It  is  worth  while  examining 
this  question  rather  closely.  As  to  the  extra  expense 
involved  by  accelerating,  let  us  say,  the  6.5  p.m.  from 
East-oil  to  reach  Manchester  at  9.5  instead  of  at  9.35, 
as  it  now  does  :  First,  more  power  will  be  wanted — let 
us  say  50  per  cent.  more.  To  secure  this,  it  will  be 
necessary  either  to  work  the  existing  engine  harder 
than  is  now  done,  or  to  employ  a  bigger  engine.  Let 
us  choose  the  latter  alternative.  The  existing  engine 
costs,  say  £3000.  The  new  one  will  cost  £4500,  and 
her  upkeep  will,  each  year,  cost  £300  instead  of  £200. 
An  engine  will  last  about  25  years,  so  the  average 
annual  expenditure  on  the  bigger  engine  will  be  £480, 


THE  WEST  COAST  129 

as  against  £320  on  the  smaller,  a  difference  of  £160,  to 
which  must  be  added  £75  for  interest  and  sinking  fund 
at  5  per  cent,  on  the  £1500  increased  first  cost  of  the 
engine,  making  £235  in  all.  40,000  miles  is  by  no 
means  an  unusual  distance  for  an  engine  to  run  in  a 
year,  and  on  this  basis  the  extra  cost  per  mile  of  the 
big  engine  over  the  small  one  is  less  than  l\d.  Next, 
the  big  engine  will  burn  50  per  cent,  more  coal  a  minute 
than  the  small  one,  but  only  33  per  cent,  more  a  mile — 
say  60  Ibs.  a  mile  instead  of  45  Ibs.,  which  will  work 
out  at  a  difference  of  about  f rf.  a  mile.  The  extra  wear 
and  tear  of  the  tender  and  carriages  will  amount  to 
very  little,  and,  even  if  it  were  necessary  to  raise  the 
wages  of  the  driver  and  fireman  to  a  small  extent,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  the  whole  extra  cost,  so  far  as  the 
train  is  concerned,  could  exceed  2M.  a  mile. 

There  remains  the  extra  wear  and  tear  of  the  per- 
manent way.  It  is  much  more  difficult  to  give  any 
estimate  of  what  this  is  likely  to  amount  to.  The 
average  expenditure  on  the  upkeep  of  the  permanent 
way  all  over  Great  Britain  appears  to  be  not  more 
than  3d.  per  train  mile.  Whether  or  no  express  trains 
damage  the  road  more  than  other  traffic,  it  is  very 
difficult  to  decide.  The  greater  speed  of  the  train 
would,  indeed,  appear  to  engender  greater  destructive 
forces.  But  so  long  as  these  forces  are  not  great 
enough  actually  to  break,  or  strain  beyond  its  elastic 
limit,  any  part  of  the  permanent  way — and,  with  a 
really  strong,  well-kept  road,  they  certainly  would 
not  be  great  enough — it  is  not  easy  to  see  where 
the  extra  wear  and  tear  comes  in.  Then,  with  really 
good  rolling  stock,  on  a  really  good  road,  there  is 
no  doubt  that  the  smoothness  of  motion  at  high 


130       RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

speeds  is  remarkable,  and,  the  higher  the  speed,  the 
smoother  the  motion  becomes.  A  gentleman,  who 
travelled  in  one  of  the  high-speed  electric  cars,  used  in 
the  speed  experiments  on  the  Berlin-Zossen  railway, 
told  me  that  at  130  miles  an  hour  the  car  hummed 
along  without  a  jolt  or  a  lurch.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  a  common  experience  to  find  railway  vehicles  more 
unsteady  at  55  miles  an  hour  than  at  any  other  speed- 
higher  or  lower.  One  reason  for  the  greater  smoothness 
of  motion  at  high  speeds  appears  to  be  the  decreased 
shock  as  the  wheels  pass  over  the  rail-joints,  which  are 
the  weakest  part  of  the  permanent  way.  The  higher 
the  speed,  the  greater,  theoretically,  must  become  the 
tendency  of  the  wheels  to  fly  the  joints,  and  this  seems 
to  be  what  actually  occurs  in  practice. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  elucidation  of  the  effect,  which 
the  speed  has  upon  the  permanent  way,  would  be 
greatly  assisted,  if  it  were  possible  to  obtain  figures 
showing  the  relative  cost  of  maintenance  of  the  uphill 
and  downhill  lines  upon  banks  steep  enough  to  make 
the  speed  of  the  trains  ascending  the  banks  much  less 
than  the  speed  of  descending  trains.  Unfortunately, 
there  do  not  appear  to  be  any  figures  of  the  kind 
obtainable.  I  am,  however,  informed  by  a  gentleman, 
who  is  in  the  best  position  to  judge,  that  he  is  under  the 
impression  that,  if  figures  were  available,  it  would  be 
found,  generally  speaking,  that  the  cost  of  maintenance 
of  each  line  was  the  same. 

If  the  question  of  the  permanent  way  were  really  a 
serious  one,  it  would  be  quite  easy  greatly  to  reduce  the 
strain  to  which  it  is  now  subjected.  Far  the  greatest 
strain  which  it  supports,  is  that  put  upon  it  by  the 
driving  and  coupled  wheels  of  the  engine,  which  some- 


THE  WEST  COAST  131 

times  have  as  much  as  20  tons  upon  each  axle,  while 
the  engine  is  standing  still.  When  an  ordinary 
2-cylinder  engine  is  moving,  this  weight  increases  and 
decreases  once  in  each  revolution  of  the  wheels,  owing 
to  the  action  of  the  weights  used  to  balance  the  recipro- 
cating parts  of  the  machinery,  and,  at  high  speeds,  the 
increase  amounts  to  several  tons.  If,  instead  of  a 
2-cylinder  engine,  a  4-cylinder  engine  of  suitable  con- 
struction is  used,  this  action  is  enormously  reduced, 
and  could  be  got  rid  of  altogether.  It  is,  also,  un- 
necessary to  put  more  than  16  tons  or  so,  each,  upon 
the  driving  and  coupled  axles  ;  the  engine  then  will 
not  be  quite  such  a  rapid  starter  as  one  with  more 
weight  upon  these  axles,  or  quite  so  well  able  to  take 
heavy  loads  up  very  steep  inclines,  but  otherwise  her 
efficiency  will  be  no  whit  diminished. 

In  view  of  all  this,  it  is  extremely  probable  that  any 
feasible  acceleration  would  involve  very  little  extra 
expense  of  account  of  the  maintenance  of  the  per- 
manent way.  If,  however,  the  actual  facts  are  the 
most  unfavourable  that  could,  with  any  show  of  reason, 
be  supposed  to  exist,  it  must  still  be  wrell  within  the 
mark  to  assume  that  the  existing  Manchester  express 
occasions  so  much  as  three  times  the  average  wear  and 
tear  to  the  permanent  way,  and  that  for  still  higher 
speeds  the  wear  and  tear  will  continue  to  increase  as 
the  square  of  the  speed.  This  would  mean  that,  while 
the  existing  train  costs  9d.  a  mile,  a  train  performing 
the  distance  in  3  hours  would  cost  Is. — i.e.  3d.  a  mile 
more.  Adding  to  this  the  2^d.  a  mile  already  arrived 
at  as  the  extra  expense  connected  with  the  train 
proper,  the  total  increase  of  expenditure  involved  in 
running  a  train  to  Manchester  from  Euston  in  3  hours, 


132        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

as  against  the  present  3|  hours,  would  be,  on  the  mos1 
unfavourable  assumption  5ld.  a  mile,  and  in  reality 
almost  certainly  much  less.  That  is  to  say  that  the 
acceleration  would,  in  any  case,  bring  the  railway  a 
clear  profit,  if  six  more  third-class  passengers  coulc 
thereby  be  induced  to  travel.  There  are  certain  othe] 
minor  points,  connected  with  the  subject,  which  neec 
not  be  touched  on,  but  enough  has  been  said  to  suggesl 
that  radical  accelerations  offer  an  extremely  good  pro- 
spect of  profit  to  any  railway  that  will  try  them 
That  railway  managers  are,  as  a  rule,  intensely  unwilling 
to  accelerate  their  trains  is  undoubtedly  true,  but,  wher 
the  facts  are  closely  considered,  it  seems  doubtful 
whether  they  do  not  give  too  much  consideration  to  the 
arguments  against  increased  speed,  and  too  little  tc 
those  in  favour  of  it.  In  course  of  time,  perhaps,  some 
one  in  authority  will  realise  that  it  is  advantageous  fo] 
all  concerned  to  get  people  over  the  ground  as  rapidl} 
as  possible,  and  not,  as  at  present,  at  speeds,  which  the 
railway  companies  affectionately  regard  as  "  quite  fasl 
enough." 

Having  discussed  the  question  of  the  probable  cosl 
of  the  acceleration  of  a  particular  train,  it  may  be  wort! 
while  to  go  further,  and  consider  how  great  a  speec 
might  reasonably  be  achieved  at  the  present  time,  witl 
a  train  big  enough  to  contain  an  adequately  paying 
complement  of  passengers.  Let  us  take  the  case  of  a 
train,  weighing  200  tons  (without  engine  and  tender) 
running  from  Euston  to  Edinburgh  with  two  stops — al 
Crewe  and  Carlisle — and  drawn  by  engines  capable  oJ 
developing  1500  horse-power  continuously.  The  weighl 
of  the  engine  may  be  put  at  75  tons  and  that  of  the 
tender  (fitted  with  a  water  pick-up  arrangement)  a1 


THE  WEST  COAST  133 

35  tons  when  full,  and  25  at  the  end  of  the  run.  The 
weight  of  the  complete  train  will  thus  average  a  little 
over  300  tons.  The  power  required  to  move  a  given 
train  at  a  given  speed  varies  to  some  extent  according 
to  circumstances — the  state  of  the  permanent  way,  the 
direction  and  force  of  the  wind,  etc. — but,  under 
ordinarily  favourable  conditions,  such  as  obtain  six 
days  a  week,  an  engine  exerting  1500  horse-power  on  a 
level  line  should  maintain  a  speed  of  not  less  than  78 
miles  an  hour,  with  a  gross  load  of  just  over  300  tons. 
(This  corresponds  to  a  resistance  of  24  Ibs.  per  ton  of 
train  at  this  speed.)  This  average  speed  would  be 
maintained  on  a  perfectly  level  road,  but  the  undulating 
character  of  all  actually  existing  lines  would  reduce  the 
average  speed  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  according  to 
the  severity  or  otherwise,  of  the  undulations.  Between 
Euston  and  Crewe,  the  undulations  are  very  gentle 
and  a  reduction  of  2  miles  an  hour  would  be  a  sufficient 
allowance,  while  between  Crewe  and  Carlisle,  and 
Carlisle  and  Edinburgh  the  severity  of  the  gradients 
would  probably  cause  a  diminution  of  5  miles  an  hour. 
Between  Euston  and  Crewe,  therefore,  the  average 
speed,  so  long  as  the  engine  was  working  at  her  full 
power  would  be  76  miles  an  hour,  and,  for  the  other 
two  lengths,  73  miles  an  hour.  There  are,  also,  to  be 
taken  into  account  the  delays  due  to  starting  and 
stopping,  and  those  due  to  the  necessity  of  slackening 
speed  at  certain  curves  and  junctions — say  4  minutes 
on  each  section  for  starting  and  stopping,  and  3 
minutes  each,  passing  Rugby,  Stafford,  and  Strawfrank 
Junction  near  Carstairs,  and  5  minutes  passing  Preston, 
at  each  of  which  points  a  serious  reduction  of  speed  is 
necessary.  This  would  leave  the  running  time,  for  the 


134        KAILWAYS  OF  GKEAT  BRITAIN 

158  miles  between  Euston  and  Crewe,  2  hours  15 
minutes  ;  for  the  141|  miles  between  Crewe  and  Car- 
lisle, 2  hours  and  5  minutes  ;  and  for  the  lOOf  miles 
between  Carlisle  and  Edinburgh,  1  hour  30  minutes. 
So,  with  5  minutes'  stops  at  Crewe  and  Carlisle,  the  total 
time  from  Euston  to  Edinburgh  would  be  6  hours.  If 
any  one  should  really  doubt  the  ability  of  a  properly 
designed  engine,  weighing  75  tons,  to  go  on  developing 
1500  horse-power  for  the  necessary  periods  of  time,  I 
can  only  ask  him  to  go  over  to  France,  and  carefully 
observe  the  work  of  some  of  the  express  engines  on  the 
Nord.  I  have,  on  several  occasions,  seen  the  4-4-2 
express  engines  of  this  line,  which  weigh  only  63  to  65 
tons,  go  on  for  10  or  12  miles  together,  doing  work 
which,  calculated  according  to  the  generally  accepted 
tables,  amounted  to  1500  horse-power,*  and  this  with- 
out the  boilers  running  short  of  steam  or  water,  so  that 
there  was  no  apparent  reason  why  they  should  not,  if 
necessary,  continue  indefinitely  to  work  as  hard  as 
this.  On  one  occasion  in  particular  one  of  these  engines 
was  working  a  train  which,  though  not  extraordinarily 
heavy,  ran  very  stiffly,  and  for  20  minutes  on  end  she 
ran,  with  the  regulator  wide  open  and  with  a  longer 
cut-off,  at  considerably  higher  speeds,  than  her  sister- 
engines  had  done  on  the  occasions  referred  to,  so  that 
it  looks  as  though  a  continuous  effort  of  1500  horse- 
power were  well  within  the  capabilities  of  these 
machines.  (The  particulars  of  this  last-mentioned  per- 
formance were  as  follows  :  average  speed,  69  miles  an 
hour ;  steam  pressure  near  the  blowing-off  point  of 
227  Ibs.  a  square  inch  ;  dimensions  of  high-pressure 

*  This,  moreover,  was  before  these  engines  were  fitted  with  super- 
heaters, as  has  now  been  done. 


THE  WEST  COAST  135 

cylinders,  13|  inches  by  25  J  inches  ;  cut-off  in  the  high- 
pressure  cylinders,  55  per  cent.  ;  diameter  of  driving- 
wheels,  6  feet  8  inches.) 

The  Nord,  moreover,  now  possesses  engines  which 
are  a  great  advance  upon  those  whose  work  has  just 
been  described.  I  have  lately  had  some  experiences  on 
that  railway,  which  throw  a  good  deal  of  light  upon 
the  question  of  the  capabilities  of  big  modern  loco- 
motives. Not  very  long  ago  20  new  express  engines 
were  acquired  of  the  4-6-2,  4-cylinder  compound 
type,  fitted  with  Schmidt  superheaters.  The  boiler 
barrel  is  about  5  ft.  6  ins.  in  diameter  ;  the  grate,  which 
is  of  the  ordinary  narrow  sort,  has  an  area  of  34j 
square  feet ;  and  the  safety  valves  blow  off  at  227  Ibs. 
per  square  inch.  The  weight  of  the  engines  in  working 
order  is  a  little  over  84  tons — not  very  much  more  than 
that  of  a  good  many  of  the  biggest  British  express 
engines,  and  much  less  than  the  Great  Western's  "  The 
Great  Bear."  The  tenders,  with  the  full  load  of  coal 
and  water,  weigh  47  tons. 

I  had  a  number  of  journeys  with  these  engines  on 
the  main  line  between  Paris  and  Calais,  and  up  all  the 
principal  inclines,  on  the  occasions  in  question,  they 
were  invariably  worked  at  approximately  their  full 
power,  with  the  result  that  I  witnessed  some  remarkable 
performances. 

Between  Paris  and  Amiens  the  two  principal  inclines 
are  those  which  lead  up  to  the  Survilliers  and  Gannes 
summits,  which  are  situated,  respectively,  between  kilo- 
metre *  posts  27  and  28,  and  near  post  86  from  Paris. 

The  Survilliers  bank  begins  about  post  7.  It 
ascends  almost  all  the  way  at  1  in  200,  but  there  are 

*  A  kilometre  is  about  1094  yards,  or  very  nearly  fths  of  a  mile. 


136        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

short  pieces  of  easier  gradient,  which  bring  down  the 
average  steepness  to  about  1  in  230.  It  must  also  be 
remembered  that  these  particulars  apply  to  the  old 
line,  now  used  for  suburban  trains.  A  few  years  ago 
a  new  double  line  was  built  for  the  express  trains. 
This  line  is  very  slightly  longer  than  the  old  line  because 
it  curves  to  avoid  the  station  yards,  but  the  positions 
of  the  kilometre  posts  have  not  been  changed  ;  the 
introduction  of  curves,  no  doubt,  slightly  increases  the 
resistance  of  the  trains. 

The  Gannes  bank  really  begins  at  about  kilometre 
48,  before  the  station  of  Creil ;  but  much  the  hardest 
part  is  comprised  in  the  last  20  kilometres  from 
post  66.  Hence,  for  two- thirds  of  the  way  to  the 
summit  the  gradients  average  about  1  in  265.  The 
remainder  averages  about  1  in  310,  which  is  the  actual 
rate  of  ascent  for  the  last  2  or  3  kilometres. 

My  first  run  was  with  engine  3.1156,  working  the 
mid-day  train,  which  weighed  292  English  tons  (ex- 
clusive of  engine  and  tender*).  The  engine  accelerated 
very  rapidly  from  the  start,  and,  helped  by  the  falling 
gradients,  which  exist  for  the  first  mile  or  two,  reached 
60  miles  an  hour  before  passing  kilometre  4 — say  about 
2J  miles  from  the  start.  A  slight  slack  followed,  where 
some  facing  points  had  to  be  passed  over,  but  kilo- 
metre 7  was  passed  5  minutes  56  seconds  from  the  start. 
Here,  with  the  regulator  wide  open,  and  steam  cut  off 
in  the  high-  and  low-pressure  cylinders,  at  55  and  65 
per  cent.,  respectively,  we  began  to  climb  the  bank, 
which  extends  for  more  than  12  miles  to  the  Survilliers 
summit.  As  we  proceeded,  the  cut-off  was  gradually 

*  The  weights  of  the  trains  are  invariably  given  exclusive  of  engine 
and  tender,  unless  otherwise  stated. 


THE  WEST  COAST  137 

increased  to  62  per  cent,  in  the  high-pressure  cylinders, 
with  the  result  that  the  speed,  instead  of  falling  as  we 
ascended  the  bank,  increased  till  the  25th  kilometre 
was  run  at  67|  miles  an  hour,  and  for  the  last  kilometre 
wholly  uphill  (the  27th)  it  was  66|  miles  an  hour.  The 
20  kilometres  from  post  7  had  occupied  11  minutes 
37f;  seconds,  which  is  equal  to  an  average  of  64*1 
miles  an  hour. 

The  ascent  of  the  last  20  kilometres  of  the  bank  to 
Gannes  was  scarcely  inferior.  We  began  it  at  about 
64  miles  an  hour  ;  again  with  the  regulator  wide  open, 
the  cut-off  was  gradually  increased  as  we  ascended  the 
hill,  and  we  finished  up  by  running  each  of  the  last 
3  kilometres  at  69  miles  an  hour,  while  the  average 
speed  for  the  20  was  65 '8  miles  an  hour. 

On  both  ascents  the  engine  steamed  well,  the  pres- 
sure being  maintained  at,  or  very  near,  the  bio  wing- off 
point  of  227  Ibs.  per  square  inch  ;  the  temperature  of  the 
superheated  steam  was  about  645  degrees  Fahrenheit ; 
the  pressure  in  the  receiver  rose  to  a  maximum  of 
about  56  Ibs.  per  square  inch,  and  the  variable  blast 
pipe  was  set  to  give  an  orifice  equal  to  a  circle  some- 
thing over  6|  inches  in  diameter,  except  towards  the 
ends  of  the  periods  of  hard  running,  when  the  opening 
was  yet  further  increased. 

These  were  actually  the  best  performances  which  I 
witnessed  on  these  inclines,  but  I  had  four  more  runs 
up  each  of  them  with  sufficiently  interesting  results. 
Up  the  Survilliers  bank  the  20  kilometres  from  post 
7  were  run,  respectively,  at  63'1,  62*5,  61'7  *  and 
63  miles  an  hour,  and  the  speeds  for  the  27th  kilometre 

*  In  this  case  the  brake  of  the  tender  had  inadvertently  been  left 
slightly  on. 


138        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

were  65,  62'8,  61'4,  and  63'5  miles  an  hour.  Up  the 
Gannes  bank  the  20  kilometres  from  post  66  were 
run,  respectively,  at  65*6  (in  this  case  the  speed  is 
for  the  19  kilometres  from  post'  67),  63*7,  65'7  and 
63-9  miles  an  hour  ;  and  the  speeds  for  the  86th  kilo- 
metre were  66'1,  65'4,  68'1  and  64'2  miles  an  hour. 
The  weights  of  the  trains  were  291,  296,  285,  and  287 
tons. 

Beyond  Amiens  the  worst  bank  on  the  way  to  Calais 
is  that  leading  up  to  Gamers.  It  begins  at  about 
kilometre  268,  and  extends  to  a  point  some  way  beyond 
kilometre  277.  The  ascent  is  at  1  in  125  the  whole 
way,  except  for  about  400  yards  near  kilometre  270, 
where  it  is  1  in  400. 

Up  this  bank  I  had  two  runs  under  the  conditions 
already  described.  The  first  was  on  engine  3.1154, 
with  a  train  weighing  296  tons.  The  bank  was  begun 
at  a  speed  of  about  70  miles  an  hour,  and  the  10  kilo- 
metres from  post  268  were  run  in  6  minutes  35  seconds, 
which  gives  an  average  speed  of  56-|  miles  an  hour. 
The  speed  for  the  last  kilometre  wholly  on  the  gradient 
of  1  in  125  (276-277)  was  53|  miles  an  hour.  The  second 
run  was  with  engine  3.1157  and  287  tons.  The  speed 
at  the  bottom  of  the  incline  was  some  5  miles  an  hour 
higher  than  on  the  previous  occasion,  the  10  kilo- 
metres from  post  268  occupied  6  minutes  9^  seconds 
(over  60  miles  an  hour),  and  the  277th  kilometre  was 
run  in  39|  seconds  (56*4  miles  an  hour).  In  both 
these  cases,  though  the  reversing  gear  was  practically 
in  full  gear  for  both  the  high-pressure  and  low-pressure 
cylinders,  the  boiler  pressure  was  maintained  at  the 
blowing-of?  point  without  difficulty.  No  steam  was 
admitted  direct  to  the  low-pressure  cylinders  on  these 


THE  WEST  COAST  139 

or  any  other  occasions,  while  the  engines  were  working 
hard. 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  run  of  all  was  one 
from  Amiens  to  Paris.  On  this  occasion  the  engine 
was  No.  3.1160,  and  the  train  weighed  321  tons.  The 
principal  banks  to  be  ascended  on  this  run  are  again 
those  leading  up  to  the  Gannes  and  Survilliers  summits, 
and  they  are  fairly  similar  to  those  by  which  these 
summits  are  reached  from  the  direction  of  Paris.  The 
former  begins  about  kilometre  120,  and  ascends  nearly 
as  far  as  kilometre  104,  principally  at  1  in  333  ;  short 
lengths  rising  at  1  in  250  and  little  bits  of  level  at 
intervals  about  balance  one  another,  so  for  these  16 
kilometres  the  gradient  may  be  regarded  as  equivalent 
to  1  in  333  throughout.  From  about  post  104  the  line 
falls  for  a  short  distance  at  1  in  250.  Then  from  post 
102  there  are  a  further  8  kilometres  averaging  about  1 
in  333  up.  This  is  followed  by  about  2£  kilometres 
of  level  line,  and  then  the  final  climb  to  post  87  is  at 
1  in  250  and  1  in  268. 

The  ascent  to  Survilliers  consists  of  20  kilometres 
from  post  48  to  post  28.  It  is  at  1  in  200  throughout, 
except  for  three  short  pieces  of  easier  gradient,  which 
reduce  the  average  ascent  to  about  1  in  220. 

From  about  the  bottom  of  the  Gannes  bank  as  far 
as  kilometre  106,  we  kept  up  something  over  61  miles 
an  hour ;  soon  after  this,  speed  was  reduced  to  pass  over 
a  bridge  which  was  under  repair,  but  then  the  pace 
steadily  rose  till,  on  the  level  piece  before  the  final 
ascent,  it  reached  70  miles  an  hour,  and,  falling  only 
very  slowly  indeed  on  the  final  stretch  of  1  in  250  and 
1  in  268,  was  still  69*4  miles  an  hour  at  the  summit. 

On  the  Survilliers  bank  we  were  very  much  hindered 


140        RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

by  an  adverse  signal,  which  obliged  us  to  slow  down  to 
about  35  miles  an  hour  at  post  45.  But  from  here  we 
steadily  gained  speed,  as  we  climbed  the  bank,  till  at  the 
summit  we  were  running  at  64*2  miles  an  hour.  Thus, 
with  a  train  of  a  total  weight  of  not  less  than  440  tons, 
within  a  space  of  about  10  miles,  up  1  in  220,  the  speed 
had  risen  by  nearly  30  miles  an  hour. 

On  another  occasion  No.  3.1170,  working  the  same 
train,  with  a  load  heavier  by  one  ton,  was  running  at 
63 '9  miles  an  hour  at  the  Gannes  summit,  and  ascended 
the  last  14  kilometres  to  the  Survilliers  summit  at  an 
almost  unvarying  speed  of  62*1  miles  an  hour,  which 
was  exactly  the  speed  at  the  summit  itself.  This 
engine  was  handicapped  by  the  fact  that  she  had  been 
out  at  the  shops  for  a  long  time  and  was  in  need  of 
overhauling. 

Downhill  there  was  no  opportunity  for  the  engines 
to  show  their  powers,  as  the  speed  limit  of  120  kilo- 
metres (74*56  miles)  an  hour  is  always  respected. 
Neither  was  it  possible  to  do  much  on  the  level.  Never- 
theless, No.  3.1152,  with  a  train  of  360  tons,  ran  for  a 
short  distance  along  the  level  at  72*6  miles  an  hour. 

A  noteworthy  point  with  these  performances  is 
that  they  were  done  under  completely  normal  working 
conditions.  No  sort  of  special  preparations  were  made 
before  the  engines  came  on  to  their  trains,  the  fuel  was 
not  specially  selected,  and  the  engines  were  taken  just 
as  they  came — no  attempt  was  made  to  secure  the 
better  ones  and  avoid  the  worse — nor  did  the  drivers 
ever  know  beforehand  that  their  engines  would  be 
called  upon  to  make  special  efforts.  The  weather  was 
generally  dry.  There  was  quite  the  normal  amount  of 
wind — usually  from  the  north  or  north-west. 


THE  WEST  COAST  141 

If  the  usual  formula  for  ascertaining  resistances  is 
applied,  it  is  found  that  on  at  least  half  a  dozen  different 
occasions  the  horse-power  must  have  reached,  or 
exceeded,  2000. 

Great  Britain  is  probably  the  only  country  in  Europe 
where  the  maximum  speed  of  trains  is  not  limited  by 
law.  Seventy-five  miles  an  hour  is  generally  the  highest 
speed  which  any  express  on  the  Continent  is  allowed 
to  attain.  British  expresses  have  in  this  way  a  certain 
advantage  over  their  Continental  rivals,  though,  under 
present  conditions,  the  amount  of  time  saved  by  any 
British  express  train  by  travelling  at  speeds  higher  than 
75  miles  an  hour  is  remarkably  small,  for  speeds 
greater  than  this  are  hardly  ever  attained,  except  for 
short  distances,  down  comparatively  steep  inclines. 
All  that  can  be  said  is  that  the  downhill  work  of 
British  engines  is  more  interesting  to  the  investigator 
than  that  of  Continental  engines,  because  there  is 
always  just  a  possibility  of  the  British  engines  reaching 
really  high  speeds. 

The  North  Western  service  to  and  from  Birmingham 
is  one  of  the  cases  in  which  the  beneficial  results  of 
competition  can  be  clearly  traced  up  to  a  certain  point ; 
after  that  point  the  deadening  grip  of  the  agreement, 
by  which  further  competition  is  to  be  avoided,  can  be 
observed  only  too  plainly.  During  the  years  before 
the  Great  Western  began  to  awake  from  its  long  sleep, 
the  North  Western,  having  then  a  much  shorter  line 
than  the  Great  Western,  had  no  difficulty  in  keeping  the 
principal  part  of  the  Birmingham  traffic  for  itself,  with 
a  rather  inferior  service  of  trains.  When  the  Great 
Western  service  improved,  the  North  AVestern  was  still 
careful  to  keep  ahead,  and  improved  its  service  till,  in 


142        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

order  presumably  to  consolidate  its  position,  in  view  of 
the  approaching  opening  of  the  Great  Western's  new 
Line  to  Birmingham,  shorter  than  its  own,  it  reduced 
the  time  of  all  the  best  expresses  to  two  hours  in  either 
direction  ;  later,  on  the  eve  of  the  opening  of  the  new 
Great  Western  line,  it  turned  to  account  the  line  of  the 
North  London  railway,  to  assist  it  in  maintaining  its 
position.  The  North  Western  has  long  had  a  controlling 
interest  in  the  North  London,  but  it  has  lately  made  its 
connection  closer,  and  the  North  London  now  forms, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  part  of  the  North  Western 
system.  The  North  Western  now  makes  use  of  the 
North  London  terminus  at  Broad  Street,  to  run  direct 
to  that  station  a  train  from  Birmingham,  which  thus 
deposits  its  passengers  in  the  heart  of  the  city. 

Now  that  the  new  Great  Western  route  is  open,  that 
line  also  runs  its  best  trains  to  and  from  Birmingham 
in  two  hours.  About  the  time  of  the  opening  of  the 
new  Great  Western  route,  inspired  paragraphs  appeared 
in  plenty  in  the  newspapers,  pointing  out  that  the  two 
lines  had  agreed  neither  to  reduce  their  time  under  two 
hours,  and  suggesting  that  it  was  a  splendid  thing  for 
everybody  that  what  the  railway  officers  like  to  call 
"  wasteful  competition  "  had  been  avoided.  In  what 
way  the  public  benefits  by  the  time  remaining  at  two 
hours,  instead  of  being  reduced  below  that  point,  was 
not  explained.  The  time  has  certainly  arrived  when 
the  speed  of  the  best  trains  between  London  and  the 
nearest  very  large  provincial  town,  served  by  the  two 
largest  railways  in  England,  both  of  whom  possess 
quite  easy  routes,  should  be  well  over  60  miles  an  hour. 
Dare  one  suggest  to  the  officers  of  the  North  Western 
and  Great  Western  Railways  that  the  proper  time 


THE  WEST  COAST  143 

for    the    expresses    to    take    between    London    and 
Birmingham  is  100  minutes  ? 

In  one  respect  British  railways  stand  pre-eminent 
among  those  of  all  the  world,  and  that  is  in  the  number 
of   long   runs  which  are  performed  by  express  trains 
without  a  stop.     It  is  the  widespread  adoption  of  the 
Ramsbottona  water  troughs,  from  which  the  engine  can 
pick  up  water  while  running,  that  has  enabled  British 
railways  to  accomplish  this.     The  troughs  can  be  laid 
down  on  any  level  piece  of  line  500  or  600  yards  long, 
even  if  there  is  a  gentle  curve.     They  are  some  18 
inches  wide,  and  are  placed  mid-way  between  the  rails. 
Under  the  tender  there  is  a  scoop,  which  normally  lies 
well  clear  of  the  sleepers,  but  which  can  be  lowered, 
when  necessary,  by  means  of  some  pneumatic,  or  other 
arrangement,  so  that  its  mouth  descends  some  inches 
below  the  level  of  the  water  in  the  troughs.     On  reach- 
ing a  trough,  the  fireman  lowers  the  scoop,  and  the 
water,  impelled  by  the  impetus  of  the  train,  rushes  up 
the  scoop,  and  thence  up  a  vertical  pipe  (which  is  a 
continuation  of  the  scoop),  out  of  which  it  overflows 
into  the  tank  of  the  tender.     If  the  line  were  level  at 
either  end  of  the  trough,  the  scoop  must  strike  against 
it,  if  not  raised  out  of  harm's  way.     For  this  reason 
the  line  is  arranged  to  fall  slightly  for  some  distance  as 
the  train  reaches  the  trough,  and  to  rise  again  to  the 
same  extent  at  the  end,  as  it  passes  off  it.     The  ballast, 
where  troughs  exist,  is  constantly  being  flooded,  and 
must  be  laid  and  maintained  in  the  most  careful  way. 

To  begin  with  a  speciality  of  the  North  Western,  the 
troughs  were  for  many  years  used  successfully  by  that 
line  before  their  utility  was  recognised  to  any  extent 
elsewhere.  The  North  Western  did  not  perform  longer 


144        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

runs  without  a  stop  than  other  companies,  and,  though 
the  troughs  afforded  certain  conveniences  for  conduct- 
ing the  traffic,  it  was  quite  easy  to  get  on  without  them, 
and  they  were  generally  neglected.  One  or  two  com- 
panies performed  runs  of  over  120  miles  without  using 
troughs,  and  it  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred  to  any 
one  that  longer  runs  than  this  were  desirable.  Some 
striking  object-lesson  was  necessary  to  impress  upon 
people's  minds  the  advantages  of  the  water  troughs, 
and  this  object-lesson  was  supplied  in  1895,  when  the 
railway  race  to  Aberdeen,  between  the  East  and  West 
Coast  routes,  took  place.  During  that  race  the  North 
Western,  with  much  lighter  tenders  than  any  of  the 
other  companies  concerned,  regularly  took  the  West 
Coast  train  to  Carlisle  (299 J  miles),  with  only  one  stop, 
while  in  the  remaining  240J  miles  to  Aberdeen,  the 
Caledonian  normally  stopped  (at  least)  twice,  and  the 
East  Coast  stopped  five  times  in  covering  its  5231 
miles.  The  average  length  of  run  was,  therefore,  for 
the  North  Western,  about  150  miles  ;  for  the  Caledonian, 
80  miles  ;  and  for  the  East  Coast  companies,  87  miles. 
The  Caledonian,  it  is  true,  on  the  last  night  of  the  race, 
managed  to  cover  the  150f  miles  from  Carlisle  to  Perth, 
without  a  stop,  but  the  train  was  even  lighter  than 
usual,  and  the  speed  for  this  stage  was  a  good  deal 
lower  than  for  any  of  the  other  stages  of  the  journey,  so 
that  it  looks  as  if  water  had  to  be  economised.  After 
the  race  to  Aberdeen,  one  company  after  another 
adopted  the  troughs,  and  all  the  English  companies, 
whose  main  lines  are  more  than  100  miles  long,  except 
the  South  Western,  now  use  them,  though  they  are 
not  so  far  employed  in  Scotland.  Perhaps  one  of  the 
reasons  for  the  troughs  not  being  laid  down  in  Scotland 


THE  WEST  COAST  145 

is  that,  owing  to  the  greater  severity  of  the  winter  in 
the  north,  it  is  feared  that  they  would  comparatively 
often  freeze,  and  so  be  rendered  useless.  This  is  not, 
of  course,  anything  like  a  complete  explanation,  and  a 
more  powerful  reason  probably  is  that,  owing  to  the 
hilly  character  of  most  of  the  Scottish  main  lines,  it 
would  be  more  difficult  and  expensive  than  usual  to 
arrange  for  an  adequate  number  of  troughs  in  the 
places  where  they  are  wanted. 

The  most  obvious  use  of  the  troughs  is  to  enable 
long  runs  to  be  made,  but  they  have  a  variety  of  other 
uses.  One  of  the  most  economical  steps  that  a  railway 
can  take  is  to  supply  the  boilers  of  its  engines  with 
water  which  will  not  deposit  hard  and  adhesive  scale. 
As  it  does  not  matter  much,  to  ten  miles  or  so,  where 
the  troughs  are  situated,  it  is  often  possible  to  choose  a 
spot  where  a  natural  supply  of  good  water  is  to  be  had 
cheaply,  and,  even  if  good  natural  water  is  not  available, 
a  water-softening  installation  on  a  large  and  economical 
scale  may  be  arranged  to  feed  the  troughs.  The  first 
cost,  and  the  weights  of  the  tenders  also,  can  generally 
be  made  less  on  railways  which  use  water  troughs,  and, 
owing  to  the  elimination  of  stops,  the  line  may  perhaps 
be  able  to  accommodate  more  trains  in  a  given  time. 

The  ordinary  "  simple  "  engine  is  a  very  compact 
and  handy  machine,  but  not  particularly  economical. 
Some  half  to  two-thirds  of  the  energy  set  free  by  the 
combustion  of  the  fuel,  passes  into  the  boiler,  which, 
all  things  considered,  is  not  a  bad  result ;  but  the  pro- 
portion, which  is  utilised  in  the  cylinders,  of  the  energy 
stored  up  in  the  steam  is  quite  small,  and  here  there 
is  great  scope  for  securing  increased  economy.  In 
simple  engines  it  is  difficult  to  make  the  steam  expand 

L 


146        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

to  more  than  about  three  times  its  original  volume, 
partly  because  the  valve-gears  generally  used  do  not 
lend  themselves  to  such  an  operation,  and  partly 
because  a  much  greater  expansion  than  this  in  a  single 
cylinder  involves  so  great  a  difference  in  the  tempera- 
tures of  the  steam  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  stroke 
of  the  piston,  that  a  great  deal  of  heat  is  lost  by  the 
incoming  steam  having,  during  each  stroke,  to  warm 
up  the  cylinder,  which  has  been  cooled  by  the  relatively 
cold  steam  just  escaped.  When,  therefore,  it  is  desired 
to  carry  the  expansion  of  the  steam  to  great  lengths, 
this  is  done  by  passing  it  through  two  successive 
cylinders,  in  each  of  which  some  expansion  takes  place, 
and  the  engine  is  called  a  compound.  For  a  long  time 
the  North  Western  used  a  great  many  compound 
engines,  while  only  a  very  few  were  found  on  other 
British  lines.  Compound  engines  did  not  by  any  means 
at  once  prove  themselves  superior  to  simple  engines, 
and,  even  now,  the  only  country,  where  the  compound 
really  reigns  supreme,  is  France.  What  has  stood  in 
the  way  of  the  compound  engine  is  the  fact  that  she  is 
necessarily  more  complicated  than  the  simple  engine, 
and  if  there  is  one  thing,  more  than  another,  that  a 
British  locomotive  superintendent  hates,  it  is  complica- 
tion. For  a  long  time,  therefore,  such  British  designers 
as,  moved  by  the  economy  promised  by  the  compounds, 
could  prevail  upon  themselves  to  give  the  system  a 
trial,  spent  all  their  ingenuity  in  endeavouring  to  turn 
out  compound  engines,  which  should  contain  the 
smallest  possible  number  of  parts,  and  be  as  much  like 
ordinary  engines  as  possible,  instead  of  frankly  recog- 
nising that  compound  engines  are  more  complicated  than 
2-cylinder  simple  engines,  and  that  the  multiplication 


THE  WEST  COAST  147 

of  parts  must  be  faced.  Dominated  by  the  idea  of 
simplicity  at  all  costs,  the  Great  Eastern,  and  after- 
wards the  North  Eastern,  built  2-cylinder  compounds. 
This,  of  course,  involved  the  use  of  unusually  heavy 
reciprocating  parts,  and  of  a  high-pressure  and  a  low- 
pressure  cylinder  of  different  sizes,  which  made  an 
unsymmetrical  engine  ;  when,  as  in  some  engines  of  this 
type,  the  cylinders,  which  were  inside  the  frames,  had 
to  be  placed  with  their  axes  at  different  angles  to  the 
horizontal,  while  the  valves  were  arranged  outside  the 
frames,  the  fresh  complications  introduced  were  worse 
than  those  avoided.  The  North  Western  built  engines 
with  two  pairs  of  uncoupled  driving  wheels,  the  second 
pair  driven  by  two  small  high-pressure  outside  cylinders, 
and  the  first  pair  by  a  very  large  low-pressure  cylinder 
on  the  centre  line  of  the  engine.  A  peculiar  form  of 
valve  gear  fitted  to  the  low-pressure  cylinder,  together 
with  the  absence  of  coupling  rods,  is  reported  to  have 
had  the  effect  of  sometimes  making  the  two  pairs  of 
driving  wheels  revolve  in  different  directions  at  starting, 
while  the  great  weight  of  the  low-pressure  piston,  which 
moved  in  constantly  varying  relation  to  the  high- 
pressure  pistons,  was  not  conducive  to  steadiness  of 
motion.  Later,  the  North  Western  began  building 
4-cylinder  compounds,  but  here  again,  for  the  sake  of 
simplicity,  each  group  of  two  cylinders — one  high- 
pressure  and  one  low-pressure — was  provided  with  one 
set  of  valve  gear  only,  so  that  the  cut-off  in  the 
low-pressure  cylinders  was  very  nearly  the  same  as  in 
the  high-pressure  cylinders.  In  compound  engines  (at 
least  in  the  case  of  those  working  with  saturated  steam 
— when  the  steam  is  superheated,  the  matter  seems 
to  be  somewhat  different),  unless  the  low-pressure 


148        KAILWAYS  OF  GEE  AT  BEITAIN 

cut-off  is  much  later  than  the  high-pressure  cut-off, 
the  engine  gets  choked,  if  the  low-pressure  are  not 
enormously  bigger  than  the  high-pressure  cylinders. 
In  the  North  Western  engines  the  low-pressure  cylinders 
were  only  about  twice  as  big  as  the  high-pressure 
cylinders,  and,  in  consequence,  the  steam  was  not  used 
in  the  best  manner.  The  first  compound  engines  which 
were  really  successful  were  the  French  type.  Here 
simplicity  was  thrown  to  the  winds.  Four  cylinders 
were  used — two  high-pressure  outside,  and  two  low- 
pressure  inside,  the  frames — driving  separate  axles, 
which  were  coupled  together,  so  that  the  high-pressure 
and  low-pressure  pistons  always  moved  in  the  same 
relation  to  each  other,  and  each  pair  of  cylinders  had 
a  separate  set  of  reversing  gear,  so  that  the  high- 
pressure  and  low-pressure  cut-offs  could  be  varied 
separately.  Slightly  less  complicated  4-cylinder  com- 
pound engines  appear  now  to  be  working  satisfactorily 
in  various  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  Midland  has  got 
good  results  from  3-cylinder  compounds,  which  possess 
several  great  advantages  over  the  3-cylinder  engines, 
which  the  North  Western  used  to  build,  in  that  all  the 
pistons  are  of  approximately  the  same  weight,  and 
their  relative  positions  are  unalterably  fixed.  While 
there  appears  to  be  little  doubt  that  properly  designed 
compound  engines  are  more  economical  than  simple 
engines,  the  prejudice  against  the  compounds  is,  in 
Great  Britain  at  least,  still  very  strong,  so  much  so 
that,  even  when,  as  is  the  case  in  certain  very  powerful 
engines  recently  built,  four  cylinders  are  used,  and  not 
very  much  extra  complication  would  ensue  from  making 
two  of  them  high-pressure  and  two  low-pressure,  all 
four  are  nevertheless  made  high-pressure  cylinders. 


THE  WEST  COAST  149 

The  North  Western,  having  continued  for  more  than 
twenty  years  to  build  compound  engines — for  both 
passenger  and  goods  trains — with  three  or  four  cylinders, 
appears  to  have  been  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  these 
engines  did  not  do  sufficiently  well  to  make  up  for  their 
greater  complication,  and  some  nine  or  ten  years  ago 
the  company  entirely  ceased  building  compounds,  and 
with  little  delay  scrapped  or  converted  into  simple 
engines  the  greater  number  of  the  compounds  which  it 
possessed.  Indeed,  there  was  something  approaching 
a  complete  and  sudden  disappearance  of  the  compounds. 
At  this  time  the  practice  of  using  two  engines  on  one 
express  train  had  become  extremely  common,  and  it 
was  apparent  that  the  North  Western  must  follow  the 
example  already  set  by  several  other  railways,  and 
introduce  express  engines  of  greater  power  than  those 
which  had  so  far  been  employed.  So  the  North  Western 
brought  out  two  new  types  of  express  engine,  in  which 
the  simplicity,  which  generally  characterises  British 
designs,  was  extremely  pronounced.  One  of  these  types 
was  a  new  4-4-0  design,  which,  weighing  as  it  does, 
close  upon  60  tons  (without  the  tender),  approaches 
the  limit  of  weight  permissible  in  such  engines.  The 
other  was  a  six-coupled  (4-6-0)  engine,  as  much  like 
the  four-coupled  engine  as  possible,  but  with  driving 
wheels  6  ft.  3  ins.  in  diameter,  instead  of  6  ft.  9  ins., 
and  other  modifications  necessitated  by  the  general 
design.  The  principal  drawback  of  the  six-coupled 
engine  appears  to  be  the  shallow  fire-box — a  defect 
shared,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  by  all  six-coupled 
express  engines  without  an  uncoupled  trailing  axle— 
which  must  make  it  impossible  to  force  the  fire  to  the 
same  extent  as  can  be  done  in  the  exceptionally  deep 
fire-box  of  the  four-coupled  engine. 


150        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

A  notable  feature  in  North  Western  locomotive 
practice  is  the  great  extent  to  which  the  Joy  valve  gear 
is  used.  In  this  gear  the  valve  is  driven  through  an 
ingenious,  and  remarkably  simple,  system  of  levers,  one 
of  which  is  attached  to  the  middle  of,  and  takes  its 
motion  from,  the  connecting  rod.  Mechanical  purists 
may  object  that  it  is  not  a  good  thing  to  put  a  bending 
strain  upon  the  connecting  rod,  which  has  quite  enough 
to  do  anyhow,  and  a  breakage  of  which  may  entail  such 
disastrous  consequences  ;  or  they  may  maintain  that, 
when  this  gear  is  used,  the  movements  of  the  driving- 
axle  springs  cause  too  great  disturbances  in  the  action 
of  the  valve.  But  the  gear  has  been  in  use  too  long, 
and  worked  too  well,  for  objections  of  this  kind  to  have 
serious  weight. 

The  good  results  to  be  hoped  for  from  each  railway's 
employing  rolling  stock  and  appliances  of  its  own  type 
have  been  pointed  out  in  a  previous  chapter,  but  for 
the  fullest  advantage  to  be  got  out  of  this  state  of  affairs 
it  is  desirable  that  frequent  opportunities  should  be 
taken  of  carrying  out  comparative  trials  between  the 
different  designs  in  use  on  the  different  lines.  Little 
of  this  has  ever  been  done.  The  engineers  of  the 
different  railways,  no  doubt,  often  meet  and  compare 
notes,  and  inspect  each  other's  productions,  but  actual 
comparative  trials  seldom  take  place.  The  North 
Western,  however,  recently  broke  with  this  tradition 
in  a  very  marked  way,  and  arranged  exchanges  of 
engines  between  itself  and  a  number  of  other  railways. 
The  results  of  these  trials  have  not  been  made  public  ; 
indeed,  it  is  undesirable  that  they  should  be,  because, 
in  cases  of  the  kind,  so  many  circumstances  might 
affect  the  results  obtained  as  to  make  figures  extremely 


THE  WEST  COAST  151 

misleading  to  the  casual  reader.  But  nothing  is  so 
likely  to  suggest  to  an  engineer  desirable  modifications 
of  his  own  designs  as  the  close  observation  of  the  way 
in  which  other  people's  designs  fulfil  the  requirements 
of  his  own  case.  The  North  Western  has  lately  brought 
out  a  4-cylinder  simple  express  engine,  which  looks  as 
though  the  experience  gained  with  a  4-cylinder  Great 
Western  engine  had  borne  fruit. 

The  effect  of  the  existence  of  several  routes  from 
London  to  almost  all  other  big  towns  is  to  give  a  very 
large  number  of  connections  between  them  daily. 
Many  of  the  principal  routes  of  the  North  Western  have 
enough  advantage  in  point  of  time  over  the  routes  of 
other  companies  to  make  the  North  Western  route  the 
one  which  is  normally  taken  by  the  majority  of  pas- 
sengers, and  the  number  of  trains  provided  by  this  line 
alone  is  generally  somewhat  greater  than  the  number 
to  be  found  on  the  most  frequented  long-distance,  or 
fairly  long-distance,  routes  on  the  Continent.  There 
can  hardly  be  two  towns  in  the  world,  between  which 
one  would  expect  to  find  a  greater  number  of  travellers, 
than  Berlin  and  Hamburg  (178J  miles).  The  Prussian 
State  Bail  ways  provide  12  trains  a  day  from  Berlin 
to  Hamburg.  The  North  Western,  according  to  the 
A.B.C.  Eailway  Guide,  runs  15  trains  from  London  to 
Manchester  (183J  miles  by  the  shortest  way)  and  13 
to  Liverpool  (192J  miles)  ;  but,  if  all  the  trains  on  all 
the  different  routes  between  London  and  these  two 
places  are  counted  up,  the  Manchester  total  reaches 
59,  and  Liverpool  total  52.  To  Bristol  (117i  miles), 
on  the  other  hand,  where  the  only  direct  route  is  by  the 
Great  Western,  there  are  16  trains  a  day.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  treatment  received  by  these  various 


152        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

places  is  probably  much  more  apparent  than  real.  So 
long  as  there  is  an  express  train  every  two  hours  or  so, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  what  more  can  be  wanted,  and  any 
great  increase  beyond  this  in  the  number  of  connections 
between  any  two  places  can  hardly  be  due  to  a  public 
demand  ;  rather  is  it  due  to  the  necessity  of  providing 
for  the  service  of  the  intermediate  stations  and  junctions 
on  the  various  routes.  It  is,  indeed,  a  well-established 
fact  that,  since  the  closer  agreements  between  the 
various  companies  have  come  into  force,  the  reduction 
in  the  train  service,  which  has  been  found  possible,  is 
extremely  small,  much  smaller  than  was  generally 
anticipated  would  be  the  case.  Moreover,  the  railways, 
having  found  that  close  agreements  with  one  another 
did  not  enable  them,  even  experimentally,  to  venture 
upon  any  great  reductions  in  their  services,  were 
obliged  at  the  time  of  the  coal  strike  of  1912  to  study 
the  question  from  another  point  of  view.  At  this  time 
all  the  railways,  except  the  Great  Eastern,  which  had 
thoughtfully  laid  down  very  large  reserves  of  coal,  were 
compelled  greatly  to  reduce  their  services,  and  to  main- 
tain them  for  many  weeks  in  a  reduced  state.  But 
even  the  experience  gathered  during  this  prolonged 
period  apparently  failed  to  convince  the  railway  com- 
panies that  anything  more  was  desirable  than  perhaps 
a  few  moderate  reductions  in  their  services.  All  this 
is  a  very  considerable  justification  for  the  railway 
policy  which  was  pursued  in  early  times — that  of 
allowing  railways  to  be  built  anywhere,  where  a  local 
demand  existed — and,  although  it  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that,  if  railways  were  to  be  laid  out  afresh,  a  smaller 
mileage  than  now  exists  would  be  made  to  suffice,  it 
is  likely  enough  that  the  rather  ample  facilities,  which 


THE  WEST  COAST  153 

the  existing  system  affords,  have  caused  a  much  greater 
traffic  to  be  created  than  a  system  laid  out  in  the  most 
economic  manner  could  have  done.  Not  only  is  there 
great  difficulty  in  reducing  the  train  service,  but  the 
number  of  stations  which  can  be  closed  is  remarkably 
small,  and  it  seems  certain  that  very  few  existing 
facilities  of  any  kind  can  profitably  be  curtailed. 
This,  of  course,  means  that  very  little  of  the  labour 
engaged  in  the  conduct  of  the  traffic  can  be  dispensed 
with  as  a  result  of  the  agreements  which  have  been 
made.  Such  economies  in  labour  as  may  prove 
feasible  are  likely  to  be  chiefly  in  clerk  labour.  A  con- 
siderable reduction  in  the  number  of  clerks  engaged  by 
the  railway  companies  (and,  eventually,  perhaps,  by 
the  Clearing  House)  may  prove  to  be  possible,  as  it  is 
obvious  that,  when  once  an  agreement  between  two  or 
more  railways  has  been  got  into  good  working  order, 
there  are  likely  to  be  far  fewer  points  of  friction  between 
them,  which  might  give  rise  to  discussion  and  corre- 
spondence, than  there  would  be  between  more  or  less 
jealous  rivals,  and  various  simplifications  and  economies 
in  administration  may  be  possible  also. 

The  North  Western  was  up  to  a  short  time  ago  so 
well  satisfied  with  its  important  long-distance  traffic 
out  of  London  that  it  did  little  to  develop  such  suburban 
traffic  as  it  possessed.  Four  or  five  years  ago,  however, 
it  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  time  had  arrived  for 
a  change  of  policy,  and  it  is  gradually  putting  in  hand 
a  scheme  for  opening  up  the  suburban  district,  through 
which  its  main  line  runs.  The  original  intention  was  that 
a  new  line  should  start  from  a  deep  level  station  under- 
neath Euston,  and  run  underground  for  several  miles, 
where  it  is  practically  impossible  to  secure  land  above 


154        KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

ground  for  widening  purposes,  and  then,  when  it 
emerged  from  the  town,  would  continue  on  the  surface. 
The  above-ground  j^art  of  this  scheme  was  begun  some 
time  ago,  but  the  construction  of  the  elaborate  and 
costly  underground  line,  and  the  deep  level  station, 
was  put  off.  On  consideration,  Euston  did  not  appear 
to  be  the  place  at  which  the  great  body  of  suburban 
passengers  would  find  it  most  convenient  to  arrive  in 
London,  and  it  seemed  as  though  the  considerable 
expense,  which  would  be  involved  by  the  construction 
of  the  underground  line,  might  (partly  at  least)  be 
saved,  while  greater  conveniences  might  at  the  same 
time  be  offered  to  the  public,  if  arrangements  could  be 
made  for  conveying  passengers  to  a  number  of  different 
points.  The  outcome  of  this  was  a  completely  new 
scheme,  which  is  to  give  passengers  living  along  the 
North  Western  line  between  London  and  Watford 
unique  facilities  for  reaching  practically  every  part  of 
the  Metropolis.  From  the  suburban  stations  new 
electrical  services  are  to  be  introduced  to  Broad  Street, 
along  the  North  London  line,  which  has  meanwhile 
passed  under  the  control  of  the  North  Western  com- 
pany, to  Euston  itself  along  the  existing  surface  lines, 
some  of  which  are  to  be  arranged  for  electric  traction, 
and  to  various  other  points  in  different  directions,  along 
existing  lines  which  are  also  to  be  electrified,  while  a 
direct  connection  will  be  made  between  the  main  line 
at  Queen's  Park  and  an  extension  of  the  present  Baker 
Street  and  Waterloo  Tube,  which  it  is  proposed  should 
be  built  with  capital  provided  by  the  North  Western. 

In  one  way  most  of  the  London  termini  are  incon- 
veniently placed,  as  in  nearly  every  case,  except  that 
of  the  railways  to  the  west,  the  line  rises  out  of  London, 


THE  WEST  COAST  155 

and  there  is  very  often  a  steep  ascent  almost  from  the 
terminus  itself.  The  North  Western,  which  is  blessed 
with  very  easy  gradients  over  the  greater  part  of  its 
principal  main  lines,  suffers  as  severely  in  this  way  as 
any  of  the  railways  running  out  of  London,  for  almost 
immediately  after  leaving  Euston  there  is  an  ascent  of 
1  in  70,  or  so,  for  some  distance.  This  must  always  be 
something  of  a  drawback,  but  if  there  is  a  little  piece  of 
exceptionally  steep  gradient  anywhere,  it  is  perhaps 
more  convenient  to  have  it  close  to  the  starting-point, 
as,  if  it  is  necessary  to  help  the  trains  up  the  bank 
with  an  engine  pushing  behind,  the  delay  involved  by 
stopping  in  mid-career  for  a  pushing  engine  to  come 
on,  is  absent.  Once  clear  of  this  ascent,  the  North 
Western  main  line  gives  very  easy  running  as  far  as 
Crewe.  There  are  one  or  two  curves  where  a  certain 
amount  of  caution  is  necessary,  but  otherwise  the 
running  conditions  are  extremely  favourable,  and  the 
branches  to  Birmingham,  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
present  few  difficulties.  On  the  main  line  north  of 
Crewe  there  are  some  miles  of  more  difficult  gradients 
before  Preston,  but  it  is  only  for  the  last  60  miles  to 
Carlisle  that  the  gradients  are  continuously  severe. 
In  the  31  miles  between  Carnforth  and  Shap  summit  the 
line  rises  some  900  ft.,  the  steepest  piece  being  the  last 
4|  miles  from  just  beyond  Tebay,  which  is  1  in  75.  For 
a  great  many  years  there  has  been  talk  of  constructing 
a  tunnel,  by  which  the  trains  would  avoid  the  climb  to 
Shap  summit,  but  nothing  has  so  far  come  of  it,  and  the 
engines  will  probably  continue  to  pant  over  this 
mountain  road  for  a  very  long  time  to  come. 

Scotland  is  a  country  where  the  distribution  of  the 
population  would,  in  any  case,  make  it  very  difficult 


150        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

sharply  to  divide  the  spheres  of  the  different  railways. 
There  is  a  rather  narrow  industrial  zone,  stretching 
roughly  across  the  middle,  north-east  to  south-west, 
where  the  population  is  very  thick,  and  hardly  any- 
where else  any  traffic  of  much  value  except  the  tourist 
traffic. 

In  many  ways  the  Caledonian  Railway  lies  in  an 
advantageous  position.  Its  main  line  from  Carlisle  to 
the  north  keeps  very  much  to  the  centre  of  Scotland, 
and  so  makes  it  easy  to  serve  the  places  on  either  side 
by  means  of  branch  lines,  while  the  main  line  itself 
keeps  quite  clear  of  Edinburgh  on  the  one  hand  and 
Glasgow  on  the  other.  From  Carlisle  to  Edinburgh 
and  Glasgow  the  Caledonian  follows  the  same  line  for 
nearly  three-quarters  of  the  way,  and  yet  the  Caledonian 
route  to  both  of  these  places  is  a  distinctly  better  one 
than  the  direct  North  British  line  to  Edinburgh,  or  the 
direct  Glasgow  and  South  Western  line  to  Glasgow. 
But,  if  its  central  position  gives  the  Caledonian  numer- 
ous advantages,  this  position  also  has  its  drawbacks  in 
that,  except  for  a  few  outlying  districts,  the  Caledonian 
has  practically  no  part  of  Scotland  to  itself.  Protected 
on  the  north  and  south  by  the  estuaries  of  the  Tay  and 
Forth,  the  North  British  has  contrived  to  secure  for 
itself  the  whole  of  the  county  of  Fife,  while  a  large  part 
of  Ayrshire  is  a  Glasgow  and  South  Western  monopoly. 
But  the  Caledonian  cannot  claim  as  its  own  preserve 
any  considerable  part  of  the  central  industrial  zone. 
In  the  country  lying  to  the  east  of  Glasgow  hardly  a 
single  place  exists  which  is  not  quite  close  to  some  line 
or  other  of  both  Caledonian  and  North  British,  and 
there  can  be  few  districts  anywhere  so  closely  inter- 
sected throughout  by  the  lines  of  two  independent 


THE  WEST  COAST  157 

companies.  Further  west  to  the  south  of  the  Clyde, 
where  the  North  British  does  not  penetrate,  another 
part  of  the  district  served  by  the  Caledonian  is  equally 
closely  intersected  by  the  lines  of  the  Glasgow  and 
South  Western. 

In  this  central  district  the  coal  traffic,  both  inland 
and  for  export,  is  of  course  very  heavy,  and  the 
Caledonian  has  its  full  share.  For  the  export  trade 
much  trouble  has  been  taken  lately  to  arrange  that  the 
coal,  when  it  has  been  brought  down  to  the  docks,  shall 
be  loaded  as  quickly  and  cheaply  as  possible  on  to  the 
steamers,  with  the  result  that  some  very  elaborate  and 
efficient  machinery  has  been  brought  into  use.  One  of 
the  best  equipped  docks  in  this  respect  is  the  Rothesay 
Dock  at  Clydebank,  belonging  to  the  Clyde  Trust, 
which  is  provided  with  a  number  of  coal  hoists  of  the 
most  modern  description.  These  hoists,  which  consist 
of  huge  frameworks  of  steel,  containing  immense  lifts, 
stand  at  intervals  by  the  water's  edge,  and  measure 
some  80  or  90  feet  in  height.  They  are  worked  by 
electricity,  the  machinery  being  arranged  at  the  top  of 
the  hoists,  and  the  different  movements  are  controlled 
by  a  man,  sitting  in  a  house  just  below  the  machinery, 
whence  he  has  a  good  view  of  all  that  passes.  The  con- 
trol is  exercised  by  means  of  a  single  lever,  which  can 
be  inserted  into  any  one  of  several  parallel  slots  ;  the 
backwards  or  forwards  motion  of  this  lever  in  the 
appropriate  slot  produces  any  desired  result. 

The  coal  trains  having  been  brought  into  the  dock 
premises  by  the  railway,  the  wagons  are  hauled  by  a 
rope  wound  round  an  electric  capstan  to  the  weighing 
machine,  where  each  wagon  is  weighed.  The  wagon 
is  then  run  forward  a  few  yards  to  an  electric  turn-table. 


158        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

where  it  is  turned  through  the  necessary  angle,  and  then 
one  end  of  the  turn-table  is  elevated  a  few  inches  and 
so  runs  it  on  to  the  hoist ;  here  it  is  locked  in  position 
by  means  of  a  bolt,  which  is  shot  out  immediately 
behind  the  leading  wheels,  and  so  prevents  them  from 
running  backwards.  The  hoist  is  then  set  in  motion  and 
the  wagon  raised  to  any  point  desired,  and  the  coal  is 
tipped  into  a  shoot  which  extends  outwards  and  down- 
wards towards  the  hold  of  the  vessel  lying  alongside. 
To  carry  out  the  tipping,  a  door  at  the  outward  end  of 
the  wagon  is  unfastened,  and  the  landward  end  is  raised 
through  an  angle  of  about  45  degrees,  so  that  an  ava- 
lanche of  coal  is  discharged  through  the  shoot,  and  in  a 
few  seconds  the  wagon  is  empty.  It  is  then  restored  to 
a  horizontal  position,  the  door  is  closed,  it  is  lowered  to 
a  railway  line  at  a  higher  level  than  that  on  which  it 
reached  the  hoist,  the  wheels  are  unlocked,  and  the 
wagon  runs  off  the  hoist  by  gravity  on  to  a  second 
weighing  machine,  where  it  is  again  weighed,  and 
everything  is  ready  for  dealing  with  a  fresh  wagon. 
In  this  manner  the  hoist  is  capable  of  dealing  with  a 
wagon  every  minute,  which,  with  wagons  of  the  usual 
size,  means  that  it  can  put  on  board  ship  600  tons  of 
coal  an  hour,  but  the  difficulties  of  trimming  the  load 
make  it  impossible  to  maintain  this  speed  for  long 
together.  The  hoists  are  built  for  dealing  with  30-ton 
wagons  if  necessary,  but  this  is  not  often  the  case. 

The  cost  of  producing  the  electricity  required  for 
dealing  with  each  wagon  is  generally  about  %d.  It  is 
generated  in  a  power  station  belonging  to  the  docks  ; 
although  the  demand  for  the  hoists  and  other  electrical 
machinery  varies  greatly  from  minute  to  minute,  it  has 
been  found  possible  in  this  power  station  to  dispense 


THE  WEST  COAST  159 

altogether  with  accumulators.  This  is  achieved  by  the 
adoption  of  a  patent  system,  the  chief  feature  of  which 
is  an  enormous  fly-wheel  turning  at  375  revolutions  a 
minute,  in  which  a  great  reserve  of  energy  is  stored. 

The  imports  of  these  docks  largely  consist  of  iron 
ore  which,  by  means  of  electric  cranes,  is  lifted  in 
buckets  from  the  holds  of  the  vessels.  Owing  to  the 
construction  of  the  holds,  and  the  presence  of  the 
tunnel  containing  the  screw  shaft,  a  great  deal  of  the  ore 
has  to  be  dug  out  by  manual  labour.  This  was  by  no 
means  a  pleasant  or  easy  job  in  the  case  of  the  heavy, 
sticky,  wet  ore,  with  which  a  ship,  which  I  watched, 
was  loaded,  but  was  probably  much  better  than  dealing 
with  the  clouds  of  suffocating  dust,  which  arise  from 
this  stuff  when  it  is  in  a  dry  state. 

In  recent  years  the  work  of  the  railways  in  dealing 
with  coal  has  been  much  complicated  owing  to  the  great 
refinements  which  have  been  introduced  into  the  pre- 
paration of  coal  for  the  market.  Between  the  time 
that  the  coal  is  raised  to  the  surface,  and  that  at  which 
it  leaves  the  colliery  sidings,  a  great  deal  of  work  is 
done  upon  it  at  the  pit's  mouth  in  the  way  of  cleaning 
it  and  dividing  it  up  into  different  qualities  and  sizes. 
At  a  colliery  which  I  visited  the  coal — which  is  lifted 
in  the  little  trucks  in  which  it  has  already  travelled, 
perhaps  a  mile,  underground,  behind  a  pit  pony  or  on 
a  tramway  worked  by  an  endless  rope — is  first  of  all 
weighed  by  a  clerk,  and  then  slid  down  one  of  a  number 
of  shoots  ;  the  larger  pieces,  amounting  to  something 
over  50  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  are  caught  on  the  way 
down  by  suitable  sieves,  and,  after  being  picked  over 
by  hand  by  a  number  of  boys  and  girls,  are  ready  for 
loading  into  the  railway  wagons.  The  pieces  of  less 


160       RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

than  two  inches  cubed,  known  as  dross,  continue  their 
descent,  and,  falling  into  railway  wagons,  are  carried 
a  few  yards  to  a  building  containing  the  washing  plant ; 
here  the  wagons  are  tipped,  and  the  dross  is  sucked  up 
a  pipe  to  the  top  of  the  building,  and  on  its  subsequent 
descent  is,  first  of  all,  divided  by  a  machine  into  four 
sizes  and  undergoes  a  process  of  washing,  by  which  it 
is  freed  from  stones  and  other  heavy  incombustible 
matter  ;  finally,  yet  a  fifth  quality  of  coal,  consisting 
of  the  finest  particles,  and  containing  a  large  admixture 
of  fine  earth  and  stone,  is  produced,  which  is  principally 
used  for  working  the  winding  engines  of  the  colliery 
itself.  What  with  the  different  qualities  of  coal  coming 
from  the  different  seams,  or  even  from  the  same  seam, 
and  the  different  sizes  into  which  the  small  coal  is 
divided,  one  mine  may  produce  coal  which  is  sold  under 
a  dozen  different  descriptions  ;  and  as  each  description 
of  coal  has  to  be  kept  separate,  and  cannot  therefore 
be  transported  in  a  wagon  which  contains  any  other 
size  or  quality,  the  difficulties  which  the  railways 
experience  in  making  up  the  coal  trains  and  distributing 
the  coal  are  very  formidable. 

Situated  as  Glasgow  is,  quite  close  to  the  beautiful 
shores  of  the  Firth  of  Clyde,  a  very  large  part  of  the 
suburban  traffic  is  conducted  to  and  from  the  numerous 
little  seaside  towns  on  that  estuary,  and  there  is  also  in 
summer  an  enormous  volume  of  tourist  traffic  to  places 
beyond.  In  all  of  this  traffic  all  three  railways  which 
serve  Glasgow — the  North  British  and  Glasgow  and 
South  Western  as  well  as  the  Caledonian — participate 
as  fully  as  they  can,  and  all  of  them  have  numerous 
steamers  running  in  connection  with  their  trains, 
which  bring  passengers  from  Glasgow  down  to  various 


THE  WEST  COAST  101 

points  of  embarkation.  The  activities  by  lard  of  the 
North  British  are  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  north 
bank  of  the  Clyde,  but  on  the  opposite  shore  of  the 
river,  as  well  as  further  inland,  the  Caledonian  finds 
itself  hard  pressed  by  the  Glasgow  and  South  Western, 
both  of  these  lines  serving  a  number  of  different  points  ; 
from  the  various  piers  not  the  railway  steamers  only, 
but  numerous  others,  ply  in  every  direction  across  the 
more  or  less  sheltered  Firth  and  the  land-locked  waters 
which  connect  with  it.  The  Coast  traffic  and  most  of 
the  rest  of  the  Caledonian's  passenger  traffic  starts 
from  Glasgow  Central  Station,  where  there  is,  besides 
the  high-level  terminus,  an  underground  station, 
through  which  run  many  local  trains.  Only  the  north- 
bound trains  running  towards  Perth  make  use  of  the 
old  terminus  at  Buchanan  Street,  which,  in  comparison 
with  the  Central,  is  a  mere  shanty. 

The  Central  Station,  which  was  only  opened  in 
1879,  has  since  then  been  reconstructed  twice  ;  at  its 
last  reconstruction,  which  took  place  about  a  dozen 
years  ago,  it  became  so  large  as  to  rank  as  one  of  the 
very  biggest  stations  in  Great  Britain,  and  the  engineers 
were  faced  with  all  the  problems,  which  arise  in  con- 
nection with  the  working  of  traffic  on  a  very  large  scale, 
and  have  to  be  solved,  in  each  case,  on  the  lines  which 
the  space  available  and  the  local  conditions  render 
expedient. 

As  the  Central  Station  is  situated  immediately  to 
the  north  of  the  river  Clyde,  the  provision  of  an  adequate 
number  of  approach-lines  involved  the  building  of  a 
very  broad  new  bridge  across  the  river,  a  task  that  was 
rendered  doubly  difficult  by  the  insecure  nature  of  the 
ground,  in  which  the  foundations  had  to  be  sunk. 

M 


162        KAILWAYS  OF  GEE  AT  BRITAIN 

Then,  beyond  the  provision  of  adequate  approaches  to 
a  big  station,  a  most  important  point  is  that  there  must 
be,  somewhere  close  by,  a  sufficient  number  of  con- 
veniently arranged  sidings  for  storing  rolling  stock, 
from  which  the  empty  trains  can  be  brought  into  the 
station  as  required,  and  to  which  they  can  be  got  out 
of  the  way  directly  they  are  no  longer  wanted,  so  as  to 
be  cleaned  and  prepared  for  their  next  journey.  Space 
for  these  was  found  by  utilising  the  site  of  the  old 
Bridge  Street  station,  just  south  of  the  river.  In  order 
to  make  the  sidings  as  accessible  as  possible,  they  were 
arranged,  not  all  next  to  one  another,  but  in  convenient 
positions  beside  the  different  running  lines,  to  which 
some  of  them  are  connected  at  both  ends. 

Increased  space  for  the  station  proper  was  secured 
partly  by  taking  in  more  ground  on  the  west  and  partly 
by  lengthening  the  existing  station  towards  the  south, 
with  the  result  that  the  area  was  about  doubled.  The 
shape  of  the  space  at  the  disposal  of  the  designers  was 
peculiar,  because  the  railway  company's  hotel  already 
occupied  one  corner  of  the  station  and  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  platforms  on  the  west  side  to  be  carried 
so  far  north  as  those  on  the  east,  and  a  sudden  con- 
traction in  the  width  of  ground  available,  due  to  the 
fact  that  sufficient  space  could  not  be  secured  on  the 
east  side,  made  it  impossible  to  carry  some  of  the 
platforms  as  far  to  the  south  as  was  desirable.  The 
result  is  that  the  north  end  of  each  successive  platform 
stops  short  of  the  point  reached  by  the  one  to  the  east 
of  it,  and  that  the  platforms  in  the  middle  of  the 
station  have  been  made  much  shorter  than  those  at 
either  side.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  general 
scheme  of  working  is  to  use  the  platforms  at  either  side 


THE  WEST  COAST  163 

for  the  long-distance  trains,  which  are  often  compara- 
tively long,  and  to  devote  the  shorter  platforms  to  the 
shorter  local  trains.  In  harmony  with  this  arrange- 
ment, the  cab-rank  is  placed  between  two  of  the  longer 
platforms  on  the  west  side  of  the  station,  at  which 
most  of  the  long-distance  trains  arrive.  One  of  the 
principal  features  of  the  station  is  the  concourse  or 
large  open  space,  between  the  main  booking  offices  and 
the  ends  of  the  platforms,  which  gives  standing  room 
for  many  thousands  of  people.  Among  the  numerous 
offices,  bookstalls,  and  waiting-rooms,  which  surround 
the  concourse,  is  the  Left  Parcels  Office,  an  institution 
which  is  highly  appreciated  by  people  who  come  into 
Glasgow  to  shop  ;  here,  for  a  small  payment,  parcels 
may  be  sent  from  shops  in  the  town,  addressed  to  their 
purchasers,  who  call  for  them  as  they  pass  to  their 
trains.  A  large  indicator  showing  the  platform  at 
which  each  train  will  depart,  is  displayed  high  up  on 
the  side  of  one  of  the  buildings  flanking  the  concourse. 
It  stands  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  easily  visible  from 
the  greater  part  of  the  concourse,  where  at  times,  when 
the  number  of  passengers  is  very  great,  large  crowds 
can  congregate  under  shelter,  and,  with  the  help  of  the 
indications  given,  hold  themselves  in  readiness  for 
passing,  as  soon  as  the  gates  are  opened,  to  the  trains 
in  which  they  desire  to  travel. 

At  the  northern  entrance  the  station  is  on  a  level 
with  the  street,  but,  owing  to  the  natural  descent  of  the 
ground  towards  the  river,  and  the  fact  that  the  interior 
of  the  station  has  an  upward  slope  for  some  distance 
from  this  entrance,  the  greater  part  of  the  passenger 
station  lies  high  above  the  street,  and  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  accommodation  on  a  lower  level,  which  is 


164        RAILWAYS  OF  GEE  AT  BRITAIN 

devoted  to  a  number  of  objects,  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant being  the  handling  of  parcels  and  of  luggage  un- 
accompanied by  its  owners.  Large  receiving  and 
sorting  offices  are  supplemented  by  a  passage  leading 
right  across  the  station  transversely  and  connected 
with  different  points  on  the  surface,  and  also  with  the 
low-level  station,  by  means  of  a  number  of  hydraulic 
hoists.  In  addition  to  the  main  entrance,  access  to 
the  station  is  provided  by  means  of  stairways  at  a 
variety  of  convenient  points,  and  a  ramp  for  the 
entrance  of  empty  cabs  has  been  arranged  below  the 
dining-room  and  above  the  kitchen  of  the  hotel.  The 
cab-rank  stretches  the  whole  length  of  the  main  arrival 
platform  ;  an  extension  of  this  platform,  conveniently 
remote  from  the  rest  of  the  station,  is  used  for  dealing 
with  fish,  fruit  and  milk,  and  road  vehicles  have  easy 
access  to  it  along  the  cab-rank. 

The  signalling  of  the  trains  into  and  out  of  such  a 
station  as  the  Central  is  a  matter  of  great  complication, 
and,  as  a  train,  entering  by  any  one  of  the  approach 
lines,  can  be  turned  into  any  platform,  the  number  of 
different  indications  that  it  must  be  possible  to  give 
the  drivers  is  considerable.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  extreme  simplicity  of  the  signals  is  very  remarkable. 
At  the  entrance  to  the  station  there  are  only  two  signals 
(one  below  the  other)  for  each  approach  line,  and,  if  it 
were  not  for  the  fact  that  some  of  the  platforms  are 
long  enough  to  take  two  trains,  one  behind  the  other, 
only  one  signal  for  each  line  would  be  necessary.  If 
the  platform,  at  which  the  train  is  to  draw  up,  is  free, 
the  top  signal  is  lowered ;  if  a  train  is  already  standing 
at  the  north  end  of  it,  leaving  the  south  end  free, 
the  bottom  signal  is  lowered.  The  number  of  the 


THE  WEST  COAST  165 

platform,  for  which  the  points  are  set,  is  made  known 
to  the  driver  by  means  of  large  figures  (illuminated  by 
night)  which  are  displayed  below  the  signal,  or  signals, 
which  allow  him  to  proceed.  The  signals  and  indicating 
figures  are  interlocked  with  circuit-breakers,  which  are 
arranged  at  intervals  along  the  rails  ;  and  these  circuit 
breakers,  by  the  fact  that  they  are  depressed  by  the 
flanges  of  the  wheels  of  any  train  standing  upon  them, 
bear  continuous  witness  to  the  presence  of  that  train. 
The  single  box,  from  which  the  signals  and  the  130  odd 
sets  of  points  are  worked,  stands  upon  the  side  of  the 
new  bridge.  An  electro-pneumatic  system  of  moving 
the  signals  and  points  is  in  use  ;  the  movement  of  any 
lever  in  the  signal  box  actuates,  by  means  of  electricity, 
a  valve  situated  close  to  the  points  or  the  signal  which 
it  is  desired  to  move  ;  and  the  movements  of  the  valve 
in  turn  admit  compressed  air  to,  or  release  it  from,  a 
cylinder  from  which  the  actual  movement  of  the  points 
or  the  signal  is  effected.  By  the  use  of  this  system  all 
the  usual  point  rods  and  signal  wires  are  dispensed 
with  ;  much  space  is  saved,  particularly  on  the  bridge, 
where  space  is  extremely  valuable,  while,  inside  the 
signal  box,  it  has  been  found  possible  to  install  the 
337  levers  in  a  frame  little  more  than  80  feet  long. 

Big  as  the  station  is,  the  company,  from  its  ex- 
perience of  the  remarkable  development  of  traffic 
which  has  taken  place  in  the  past,  is  fully  aware  that 
at  no  distant  date  it  may  be  necessary  to  make  it  yet 
bigger.  The  station  has,  therefore,  been  so  built  that, 
when  the  time  arrives,  it  will  be  possible  to  carry  out  a 
further  enlargement  on  the  west  side,  where  there  is 
space  available  for  several  more  platforms  to  be  added 
to  the  existing  ones.  This  will  be  done  in  such  a 


166        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

manner  that  the  further  extension  will  harmonise 
completely  with  the  present  building.  The  bridge  over 
the  Clyde  was  constructed  with  this  eventuality  in 
view,  and  will  want  no  alteration  when  it  is  decided  to 
proceed  with  the  new  work. 

Though  the  Central  is  certainly  the  most  remarkable 
station  in  Glasgow,  St.  Enoch's,  which,  with  its  lofty 
single  arch  roof,  is  a  great  contrast  to  the  Central,  is 
also  a  station  by  no  means  unworthy  of  a  great  city. 
As  for  the  North  British,  its  Glasgow  terminus  at  Queen 
Street  (High  Level)  is  in  size  and  convenience  a  very 
long  way  behind  both  the  Central  and  St.  Enoch's. 
The  main  line  from  Glasgow  starts  northwards,  where 
the  ground  rises  very  steeply,  and,  consequently,  im- 
mediately on  leaving  the  terminus,  a  longish  ascent  at 
1  in  45  is  encountered,  a  good  part  of  which  is  in  tunnel. 
For  many  years  the  trains  were  worked  in  and  out  of 
Queen  Street  by  means  of  a  stationary  engine  and  a 
rope,  but  this  has  now  been  given  up  in  favour  of 
ordinary  locomotives,  and  the  trains  are  helped  up  the 
incline  by  powerful  tank  engines.  If  the  traffic  in  and 
out  of  Queen  Street  (High  Level)  were  anything  like 
that  dealt  with  by  the  Caledonian  at  the  Central,  this 
very  awkward  approach  would  be  a  serious  handicap ; 
as  is  the  case  with  the  Caledonian  at  the  Central,  a 
great  part  of  the  North  British's  passenger  traffic  does 
not  use  the  high-level  station  at  all,  but  tra verses 
Glasgow  from  east  to  west  by  means  of  an  underground 
line,  which  passes  through  Queen  Street  station  at 
right  angles  to  the  high  level  line. 

Beyond  the  great  work  at  Glasgow  Central,  a  good 
deal  of  reconstruction  has  lately  been,  or  is,  proceeding 
on  the  Caledonian,  particularly  at  Stirling,  Carstairs, 


THE  WEST  COAST  167 

and  Buchanan  Street  stations,  and  the  improvements, 
which  have  been  going  on  at  Aberdeen,  have  now 
entered  upon  their  last  stage — the  rebuilding  of  the 
present  station  on  a  much  larger  scale.  For  some 
years  now  the  Caledonian  has  been  engaged  in  improving 
and  extending  its  property  in  Aberdeen.  The  approach 
lines  have  been  widened,  a  new  goods  station  of  modern 
design  has  been  erected,  the  running  shed  has  been 
extended,  and  the  big  bridge  across  the  Dee  has  just 
been  rebuilt.  The  new  station  which,  like  the  old,  will 
be  owned  jointly  with  the  Great  North  of  Scotland 
Railway,  will  cover  considerably  more  ground  than  the 
present  station  and  contain  about  double  the  accom- 
modation. 

Though  the  populous  parts  of  Scotland  are  well 
supplied  with  railways,  directly  they  are  left  behind  the 
traveller  reaches  districts  where  railways  are  not  looked 
upon  as  a  matter  of  course.  Here,  rather,  he  has  to  be 
thankful  that  railways  exist  at  all,  and  any  company 
which  has  built  a  railway  must  be  looked  on  as  a  public 
benefactor.  Prolonged  shunting  operations  at  every 
second  station  are  quite  normal  incidents  of  the 
journey,  and,  if  necessary,  half  a  dozen  trucks  of  coal 
are  attached  to  the  rear  of  a  passenger  train,  whose 
occupants  are  expected  to  overlook  the  bumping, 
which  they  consequently  receive  every  time  the  train 
stops.  If  no  member  of  the  station  staff  is  unoccupied, 
one  of  the  ladies  of  the  stationmaster's  family  is  turned 
on  to  examine  the  tickets,  and  a  free  and  easy  feeling 
characterises  all  the  proceedings.  In  these  remote 
places,  no  doubt,  the  traffic  is,  owing  to  the  paucity  of 
the  population,  of  strictly  limited  extent,  and  to  make 
the  railway  pay,  or,  indeed,  not  lose  heavily,  the 


168        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

adoption  of  every  species  of  economy  is  of  importance. 
A  large  capital  expenditure  is  out  of  the  question,  so 
the  line  is  single  and  tunnels  are  almost  completely 
avoided,  the  line  closely  follows  the  surface  of  the 
country,  and  the  steep  hills,  which  have  to  be  sur- 
mounted, are  overcome  by  taking  a  winding  course. 
All  this  vastly  increases  the  difficulties  of  working,  and 
the  chances  of  unpunctuality,  with  its  attendant  evils  ; 
but,  when  these  evils  are  forced  upon  the  attention,  it 
is  only  fair  to  compare  things  with  what  they  would  be 
if  the  railway  did  not  exist  at  all,  rather  than  contrast 
the  shortcomings  of  an  unfavourably  situated  little 
company  with  the  efficiency  of  the  more  fortunate 
trunk  lines.  The  most  conspicuous  instance  in  Great 
Britain  of  a  line  built  through  the  wilderness  is  the 
Highland  Railway,  whose  main  line  stretches  279  miles 
through  country  which  is  to  all  intents  devoid  of 
industries,  and  is  to  a  great  extent  devoid  also  of 
agriculture.  No  doubt  its  construction  was  primarily 
due  to  the  great  landlords,  who  wanted  a  means  of 
access  to  their  estates,  and  it  would  hardly  have  been 
undertaken  at  all  if  the  summer  attractions  of  the 
Highlands  had  not  promised  to  produce  a  considerable 
pleasure  traffic,  which  would  partially  offset  the  exceed- 
ing barrenness  of  the  country  traversed.  A  railway  of 
this  kind  cannot  be  looked  on  as  a  strictly  commercial 
undertaking,  and  its  founders  no  doubt  regarded  it  as 
a  convenience,  for  which  they  were,  in  the  last  resort, 
ready  to  pay,  without  hoping  for  much  direct  return  on 
their  capital. 

The  busy  station  of  Perth  is  the  point  whence  the 
Highland  trains  start  on  their  long  journey  into  the 
wilds.  Next  to  Carlisle  and  York,  Perth  is  probably 


THE  WEST  COAST  169 

the  most  remarkable  junction  in  the  British  Isles.  It 
is  true  that  only  three  railway  companies  run  their 
engines  into  it,  but  the  variety  of  passenger  stock  which 
passes  through  is  very  great,  as  it  is  here  that  the  East 
Coast,  West  Coast,  and  Midland  routes  to  Scotland  all 
converge  to  contribute  their  share  of  the  traffic  which 
proceeds  to  the  Far  North  by  way  of  the  Highland 
Kailway. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE  RAILWAYS  TO^CHE  WEST 

Great  Western  Railway — Railway  Gauges — Great  Western  Engines — 
Water  Softening — Long  Runs — Slip  Carriages — Rail  Motors — Per- 
manent Way — South  Western  Railway — Goods  Station  at  Nine 
Elms — Princetown  Railway — Southampton  Docks — Eastleigh  Works 
— Signals — Engine  Drivers — Single  Line  Working — Brakes — 
Tenders. 

THE  Great  Western,  like  all  other  big  British  railways, 
is  an  amalgamation  of  a  considerable  number  of  lines. 
Owing  to  the  geographical  formation  of  the  West 
Country,  and  to  other  causes,  the  lines  forming  the 
Great  Western  system  were  formerly  exceptionally 
scattered,  and  a  large  number  of  extremely  expensive 
new  railways  were  necessary  in  order  to  link  up  the 
different  districts,  in  which  these  lines  lay.  Some 
twenty-five  years  ago  the  Great  Western,  which  had 
the  greatest  mileage  of  any  company  in  Great  Britain, 
had  hardly  a  single  really  direct  route  from  London  to 
any  town  of  first-rate  importance,  and,  where  there 
were  two  routes,  the  Great  Western  one  was  invariably 
the  longer.  The  North  Western  route  to  Birmingham, 
and  the  South  Western  route  to  Exeter  and  to  Plymouth 
were  15  to  20  miles  shorter  than  those  of  the  Great 
Western,  the  important  South  Wales  district  was 
cut  of!  from  direct  communication  with  Bristol  and 
London  by  the  estuary  of  the  Severn,  and  had  no 


THE  EAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        171 

really  good  connection  with  Birmingham,  and,  even 
between  London  and  Bristol,  where  there  was  a  direct 
line,  the  trains  took  some  quarter  of  an  hour  longer 
than  necessary  because  of  an  old  contract,  whereby  the 
railway  company  had  bound  itself  to  the  owner  of  the 
Swindon  refreshment  rooms  to  stop  all  the  trains  there 
for  ten  minutes.  In  addition  to  all  this  some  of  the  lines 
were  broad  gauge,  and,  though  over  a  good  many  of 
them  a  third  rail  had  been  laid  down  to  accommodate 
standard  gauge  rolling  stock,  the  existence  of  two  gauges 
greatly  increased  the  difficulty  of  working  the  line. 
Such,  then,  was  the  position  which  the  management 
had  to  change  in  order  to  make  the  Great  Western  the 
compact  and  easily  worked  system,  which  it  now  is, 
and,  step  by  step,  all  the  old  obstacles  were  removed 
till  to-day  the  line  is  among  the  leading  railways  of  the 
world.  The  first  work  of  magnitude  that  was  under- 
taken was  the  construction  of  the  Severn  Tunnel, 
linking  up  the  two  banks  of  the  estuary  of  that  river. 
Next,  in  1892,  the  last  of  the  broad  gauge  lines  were 
converted  to  narrow  gauge,  and  the  use  of  broad  gauge 
rolling  stock  ceased  for  ever.  The  next  step  was  the 
purchase,  in  1895,  of  the  remainder  of  the  lease  of  the 
Swindon  refreshment  rooms,  and  from  that  date  many 
of  the  express  trains  began  to  run  through  Swindon, 
saving  much  time  thereby.  The  price  paid  was  £100,000. 
Beyond  this,  four  important  short-cuts  were  taken  in 
hand.  Firstly,  a  line  was  built  leaving  the  main  line 
some  miles  beyond  Swindon  and  running  direct  to  the 
Severn  Tunnel,  shortening  the  distance  to  South  Wales 
by  about  11  miles,  and  also  giving  an  alternative 
route  for  part  of  the  way  between  London  and  Bristol 
slightly  shorter  than  the  original  main  line  through 


172        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

the  Box  tunnel.  Secondly,  by  building  two  new 
lengths  of  line  and  bringing  up  to  the  requirements  of 
main  line  traffic  other  lengths  of  existing  line,  a  new 
route  was  made  to  Exeter  and  the  west.  This  route 
leaves  the  old  main  line  at  Reading  and  rejoins  it  near 
Taunton.  It  saves  rather  more  than  20  miles,  and 
makes  the  Great  Western  route  to  Plymouth  shorter 
than  that  of  the  South  Western.  Thirdly,  by  short 
lengths  of  new  line,  a  greatly  improved  route  was  pro- 
vided between  Birmingham  and  South  Wales  and 
Bristol ;  and,  fourthly,  two  lengths  of  new  line  between 
Acton  and  a  point  north  of  Oxford  have  given  a  new 
route  from  Paddington  to  Birmingham,  two  or  three 
miles  shorter  than  that  of  the  North  Western.  The 
opening  of  the  new  route  to  Ireland,  by  way  of  Fish- 
guard,  has  also  to  be  credited  to  the  enterprise  of  the 
Great  Western  during  the  same  period. 

With  all  the  recent  developments,  the  Great  Western 
traffic  to  and  from  London  has  naturally  not  ceased  to 
grow,  and  corresponding  improvements  and  extensions 
have  had  to  be  taken  in  hand  in  the  London  district. 
The  old  engine-shed  at  Westbourne  Park  was  removed 
some  years  ago,  and  the  engines  now  find  more  extensive 
accommodation  in  the  new  sheds  at  Old  Oak  Common  ; 
and  the  remodelling  and  extension  of  Paddington 
Station,  and  the  railway  approaches  thereto,  are  being 
gradually  proceeded  with.  Except  for  the  platforms 
being  some  distance  below  the  level  of  the  street,  there 
is  little  fault  to  be  found  with  the  arrangements 
at  Paddington.  The  station  is  compact,  yet  fairly 
spacious,  and  it  is  one  of  the  few  where  there  are 
adequate  means  of  passing  from  one  platform  to 
another.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  in  the  extension  it 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        173 

will  be  found  possible  to  preserve  these  good  features, 
though  the  apparent  endlessness  of  the  new  addition 
to  No.  1  Departure  Platform  suggests  that  rather  long 
and  tiring  walks  may  have  to  be  taken. 

The  existence  for  many  decades  of  broad  gauge 
lines  on  the  Great  Western  long  kept  alive  in  this 
country  a  discussion  as  to  what  constituted,  theor- 
etically, the  best  railway  gauge,  from  the  points  of  view 
of  both  safety  and  economy. 

As  regards  safety,  the  standard  gauge  has  turned 
out  to  be  sufficiently  wide  to  take  engines  and  carriages 
having  the  highest  centres  of  gravity.  In  early  days, 
when  the  engines  were  very  small,  their  centre  of  gravity 
was  naturally  low.  It  is  obvious  that  the  lower  the 
centre  of  gravity  the  less  chance  there  is  of  the  engines 
overturning,  and  for  this  reason  a  low  centre  of  gravity 
was  held  to  be  conducive  to  safety.  As  more  and  more 
powerful  engines  were  required,  necessitating  bigger 
boilers,  and,  in  some  cases,  bigger  wheels,  the  centre 
line  of  the  boiler  had  to  be  raised  more  and  more,  either 
to  clear  the  axles  or  cranks,  or  on  account  of  the 
boiler's  own  greater  diameter,  which  eventually  reached 
a  point  when  it  was  impossible  any  longer  to  get  it  in 
between  the  wheels,  so  that  it  had  to  be  raised  above 
them.  Each  step  involved  a  higher  centre  of  gravity 
for  the  whole  engine,  and  the  progress  which  has  been 
realised  in  the  power  of  engines,  has  been  made  possible 
only  by  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  such  increased 
height  is  not  dangerous.  In  a  locomotive  a  great  deal 
of  the  weight  is  placed  very  low  down — the  frames, 
cylinders  and  wheels  are  all  very  heavy — and  the  boiler 
is  much  lighter  than  its  appearance  would  suggest,  so 
that  in  engines  with  quite  high-pitched  boilers  the 


174        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

centre  of  gravity  and  the  rails  still  make  approximately 
an  equilateral  triangle.  On  a  line  which  is  straight  it 
does  not  matter  much  what  the  height  of  the  centre  of 
gravity  is,  but  on  curves,  within  the  limits  attainable, 
the  higher  it  is  the  better.  When  passing  round  a 
curve  the  engine  exerts  a  certain  strain  upon  the  outer 
rail,  tending  to  push  it  outwards.  The  direction, 
whence  the  push  comes,  is  from  the  centre  of  gravity 
of  the  engine,  and  therefore  the  higher  this  point  is, 
the  more  does  the  strain  come  upon  the  rail  from  above 
and  the  less  likely  is  it  to  burst  the  road.  In  electric 
locomotives  the  centre  of  gravity  can  be,  and  generally 
is,  placed  very  low  indeed,  and,  in  America,  at  least  one 
serious  accident  has  occurred  through  the  roads  being 
burst  by  engines  of  this  type.  So  much  is  this  danger 
to  be  feared  that  in  some  recent  electric  engines  con- 
siderable complications  have  been  introduced  with  the 
object  of  raising  the  centre  of  gravity  to  the  same 
height  as  in  steam  locomotives. 

As  regards  economy,  the  standard  gauge  of  British 
railways  had,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  to  be  fixed 
before  anything  could  be  accurately  known  of  future 
requirements,  and  was  therefore  a  step  in  the  dark.  If 
railways  could  be  begun  again,  there  is  little  doubt  that 
a  wider  gauge  would  be  chosen,  but,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  it  has  been  found  not  merely  possible,  but  also 
advantageous,  to  build  railway  vehicles  much  higher 
and  wider  than  would  at  one  time  have  been  considered 
safe,  the  distance  between  the  rails  (4  ft.  8|  ins.)  has 
been  found  sufficient.  What,  indeed,  has  limited  the 
full  development  of  British  railway  vehicles  is  the 
comparatively  small  dimensions  of  the  tunnels  and  the 
little  space  left  by  the  platforms  and  bridges.  In  most 


THE  KAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        175 

other  countries  the  gauge  of  the  rails  is  the  same,  but 
more,  sometimes  much  more,  space  has  been  left  at  the 
sides  and  above,  and  vehicles  much  higher  and  wider 
than  would  pass  the  British  loading  gauge  are  success- 
fully run.  As  the  loading  gauge  is,  so  is  it  likely  to 
remain,  for  it  is  almost  inconceivable  that  any  radical 
reconstruction  of  British  railways  could  take  place  so 
as  to  admit  of  the  use  of  much  higher  and  wider  vehicles  ; 
and,  although  some  scheming  is  required,  everything 
that  is  really  necessary  can  be  done  with  the  existing 
loading  gauge.  But,  that  the  existing  gauge  of  the 
rails  has  turned  out  to  be  fairly  adequate,  is  due  more 
to  good  luck  than  to  foresight.  If  the  dimensions  of 
existing  railway  vehicles  had  been  foreseen,  it  is 
certain  that  in  early  days  a  wider  gauge  would  have 
been  thought  necessary  to  carry  them.  As  it  is,  the 
4  ft.  8|  in.  gauge  is,  and  probably  will  continue  to  be, 
just  sufficient,  though  not  by  any  means  ample,  for 
the  requirements  of  locomotive  and  carriage  designing, 
while  that  it  is  adequate  as  regards  the  speed  and  weight 
of  the  trains,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  limit  in 
neither  of  these  particulars  has,  in  this  country,  so  far 
been  nearly  reached  in  every-day  work.  But,  if  rail- 
ways could  be  begun  over  again  in  the  light  of  modern 
experience,  it  is  almost  certain  that  not  only  a  wider 
gauge  of  the  rails,  but  also  a  bigger  loading  gauge, 
would  be  chosen.  Increased  economy  has  been  made 
possible  in  ocean  transport  by  the  construction  of 
larger  and  larger  vessels,  and  the  larger  the  vessel  the 
greater  the  economy  appears  to  be.  Up  to  the  present 
time,  the  standard  gauge  and  the  head-room  available 
have  been  sufficient  to  render  somewhat  analogous 
economies  possible  in  railway  transport,  but  bigger 


176        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

dimensions  would  have  made  progress  easier,  and, 
therefore,  almost  certainly  faster  than  it  has  been. 
In  the  United  States,  indeed,  where  many  of  the  trains 
are  as  long  and  heavy  as  possible,  so  great  an  authority 
as  Mr.  Harriman  appears  to  have  thought  that  a  wider 
gauge  with  still  more  head-room  might  have  to  be 
adopted  sooner  or  later.  But  the  railways  of  Great 
Britain,  where  trains  of  all  kinds  are  comparatively 
light  and  fast,  would  have  less  to  gain  than  those  of 
other  countries  from  being  able  to  run  extremely  heavy 
trains,  so,  though  it  is  certainly  to  be  regretted  that 
there  is  not  a  little  more  head-room  for  engines  and 
passenger  vehicles  like  corridor  carriages  and  sleeping 
carriages,  there  is  not  very  much  fault  to  be  found  with 
the  4  ft.  8j  in.  gauge  of  the  rails. 

For  more  than  forty  years  the  broad  gauge  expresses 
were  worked  by  engines  with  single  driving-wheels, 
8  ft.  in  diameter — on  account  of  their  long  service, 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  classes  of  engine  that  has 
ever  existed.  As  the  broad  gauge  allowed  ample  room 
in  every  direction  the  task  of  the  designers  was  much 
facilitated  and  the  engines  were  simple,  compact,  and 
powerful,  and  suffered  in  no  way  from  any  of  their 
parts  being  cramped.  They  ran  on  eight  wheels,  there 
being  two  pairs  of  carrying  wheels  in  front  of,  and  one 
behind,  the  driving  wheels.  The  total  wheel-base  was 
only  18  ft. — equivalent  to  one  of  12  ft.  on  the  standard 
gauge — an^?  as  there  was  thus  no  difficulty  in  the  matter 
of  rounding  curves,  no  special  arrangements  were 
necessary  to  give  flexibility,  and  so  all  the  axle-boxes 
were  fitted  direct  to  the  main  frames.  With  inside 
cylinders  only  18  ins.  by  24  ins.,  a  gauge  of  7  ft.,  and 
a  comparatively  slow  movement  of  the  reciprocating 


THE  KAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        177 

parts  owing  to  the  large  diameter  of  the  driving- 
wheels,  these  engines  possessed  also  great  stability,  and 
at  that  early  period,  when  they  were  first  introduced, 
were  little  less  than  works  of  genius.  They  were 
modified  slightly  as  time  went  on,  but  there  was  little 
real  difference  between  the  first  engines  of  the  class 
and  those  which  were  working  in  the  last  days  of  the 
broad  gauge.  Much  as  we  may  admire  the  ability  of 
the  designers  of  the  first  engines,  it  is  a  sorry  com- 
mentary on  the  enterprise  of  the  Great  Western  during 
that  time  that  the  trains  had  improved  so  little  in  the 
intervening  years  as  to  leave  the  engines,  which  worked 
them  in  the  '40's,  still  good  enough  to  work  them  in 
the  '90's.  Since  the  abolition  of  the  broad  gauge, 
the  locomotive  designing  of  the  Great  AVestern  has, 
like  almost  everything  else  connected  with  that  rail- 
way, made  great  strides,  as  may  be  seen  by  an  inspec- 
tion of  one  of  the  engines  used  for  working  those 
expresses,  which  now  make  the  Great  Western  famous 
throughout  the  world.  Big  and  imposing  she  is,  though 
not  perhaps  so  pleasing  in  outline  as  British  engines 
generally  are.  Of  her  efficiency  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
Consider  how  every  detail  has  been  thought  out,  and 
how  many  well-attested  improvements  have  been 
applied.  Some  railways  do  not  like  employing  a  steam 
pressure  in  the  boiler  higher  than  175  Ibs.  per  square 
inch,  but  for  this  engine  and  her  sisters  the  Great 
Western  boiler- makers  have  to  make  boilers,  which 
will  keep  tight  with  225  Ibs.  ;  and  this  makes  the 
engines  both  more  powerful  and  more  elastic — if  they 
are  called  upon  to  make  a  special  effort  they  may  use 
steam  faster  than  they  can  make  it  till  the  pressure  is 
reduced  to  175  Ibs.,  and  still  be  as  well  off  for  steam 

N 


178        BAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

as  engines  whose  safety  valves  blow  off  at  that  point. 
Her  six-coupled  wheels,  of  the  same  diameter  as  are 
given  to  four-coupled  express  engines,  allow  her  to 
reach  the  highest  speeds  without  the  indefinable  effort 
of  movement,  which  is  noticed  in  engines  with  small 
wheels,  and,  as  there  is  at  the  same  time  more  than 
fifty  tons'  weight  on  the  coupled  wheels,  she  is  able  to 
gain,  or  regain,  speed  *  very  rapidly,  and  to  climb  hills 
well.  On  the  important  West  of  England  trains  both 
these  qualities  are  of  great  use,  as  there  are  some  half- 
dozen  stations  between  Paddington  and  Plymouth 
through  which  the  trains  have  to  slow  down,  and  on 
the  South  Devon  section  of  the  line  between  Newton 
Abbot  and  Plymouth,  the  gradients  in  some  places  are 
so  steep  that  the  heavier  trains  are  sometimes  actually 
more  than  a  four-coupled  engine  could  undertake  at  all 
with  any  certainty  of  not  coming  to  a  stand.  Worst 
of  all  is  the  Hemerdon  bank,f  which  the  up-trains  from 
Plymouth  encounter  at  the  very  beginning  of  their 
journey.  This  ascent  is  more  than  two  miles  long,  and 
the  gradient  is  1  in  42  and  1  in  43  ;  it  is  nearly  twice 
as  steep  as  the  Beattock  bank  on  the  Caledonian,  and 
is  certainly  the  most  formidable  obstacle  met  with  on 
any  of  the  more  important  British  main  lines.  Taking 
the  maximum  pull  that  the  pistons  can  exert,  without 

*  I  once  had  a  very  good  opportunity  of  comparing  the  powers  of 
a  four-coupled  and  a  six-coupled  engine  (of  almost  precisely  the  same 
weights)  of  getting  rapidly  into  speed  with  heavy  trains,  when  both 
engines  were  doing  approximately  their  best.  The  six-coupled  engine 
with  a  train  of  310  tons  took  120  seconds  to  cover  the  first  ^  mile.  The 
next  day  the  four-coupled  engine,  working  the  same  train  with  300 
tons,  under  substantially  similar  conditions,  took  147  seconds  for  the 
same  distance.  This  was  not  on  the  Great  Western. 

t  In  other  parts  of  the  South  Devon  line  the  gradients  are  very 
slightly  steeper,  but  for  much  shorter  distances. 


THE  KAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        179 

skidding  the  wheels,  as  4  of  the  adhesion  weight,  we 
find  that  engines  of  this  kind  can  exert  a  pull  of  about 
10  tons,  and  can  therefore  just  struggle  up  1  in  42  with 
250  tons  behind  the  tender.  If  only  four  of  the  wheels 
were  coupled,  the  train  load  would,  under  the  same 
conditions,  have  to  be  reduced  to  about  125  tons. 

The  efficiency  of  the  boiler  is  increased  by  the  appli- 
cation of  a  superheater  of  the  Swindon  type,  which, 
though  it  does  not  raise  the  temperature  of  the  steam 
to  nearly  the  same  extent  as  does  the  Schmidt  design, 
has  nevertheless  proved  of  value. 

As  these  engines  are  often  obliged  to  exert  a  high  power 
for  long  periods  together,  the  strain  on  the  machinery 
is  considerable.  In  order  to  reduce  this  strain,  the 
ordinary  arrangement  of  two  cylinders  is,  in  some  cases, 
replaced  by  an  arrangement  involving  the  use  of  four 
much  smaller  cylinders — two  inside  the  frames,  driving 
the  first  coupled  axle,  and  two  outside,  driving  the 
second  coupled  axle.  The  driving  stresses  are  in  this 
way  much  diminished.  Beyond  this,  a  yet  more  im- 
portant advantage  is  secured  in  that  the  cranks  are  so 
arranged  that  the  pistons  of  the  inside  and  the  outside 
cylinders  on  either  side  of  the  engine  are  made  always 
to  move  in  opposite  directions  and  so  approximately 
to  balance  one  another.  This  makes  it  unnecessary  to 
put  into  the  driving  wheels  balance  weights  of  the  kind 
that  are  used  in  2-cylinder  engines,  which,  much  to 
the  detriment  of  the  permanent  way,  once  in  every 
revolution  of  the  wheels  increase  the  weight  which  the 
rail  has  to  support.  Another  device  tending  to  spare 
the  permanent  way  is  the  connecting  together  by 
means  of  equalising  levers,  of  the  springs  of  all  the 
coupled  wheels,  which  prevents  any  one  pair  of  wheels 


180       EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

from  ever  supporting  more  than  its  allotted  share  of 
the  weight  of  the  engine. 

Some  years  ago,  before  the  present  standard  designs 
of  express  engines  were  evolved,  the  Great  Western 
took  the  unusual  step  of  importing  several  engines  from 
France.  In  1900,  the  Chemin  de  fer  du  Nord  had 
brought  out  a  4-cylinder  compound  engine  with  the 
4-4-2  arrangement  of  wheels,  the  performances  of 
which  were  so  remarkable  that  they  attracted  the  widest 
attention  in  many  other  countries  besides  France. 
The  Nord  soon  multiplied  the  type,  and  other  French 
railways  adopted  it,  always  with  the  most  satisfactory 
results,  so  after  a  time  the  Great  Western,  which  was 
rapidly  improving  its  trains,  and  was  feeling  the  need 
for  more  and  more  powerful  engines,  imported  from 
France  an  engine  precisely  like  the  Nord  engines,  and 
then,  a  year  or  two  later,  two  similar,  but  slightly  bigger 
engines  of  the  same  pattern  as  some  built  for  the  French 
Paris-Orleans  line.  Though  this  experiment  did  not 
result  in  the  full  adoption  of  the  French  design,  these 
engines  seem  always  to  have  done  very  good  work,  and 
the  employment,  in  one  of  the  now  standard  types  of 
Great  Western  express  engine,  of  various  prominent 
features  of  the  French  engines — four  cylinders  with 
balanced  reciprocating  parts,  Walschaerts'  valve-gear, 
and  the  high  boiler  pressure  of  225  Ibs.  per  square 
inch — is  no  doubt,  in  part  at  least,  due  to  these 
importations. 

The  Great  Western  has  the  distinction  of  possessing 
what  is  at  the  present  time  the  largest  engine  in  Great 
Britain.  This  engine,  "  The  Great  Bear,"  is  not  unlike 
the  other  4-cylinder  six-coupled  express  engines,  but 
she  is  bigger  throughout,  and  has  an  extra  pair  of  small 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        181 

trailing  wheels  to  support  a  fire-box  of  the  wide  variety. 
Although  "  The  Great  Bear  "  was  put  to  work  in  1908, 
no  more  engines  of  the  type  have  yet  appeared.  There 
does  not,  indeed,  appear  to  be  any  work  on  the  Great 
Western  which  cannot  be  performed  quite  satisfactorily 
by  the  smaller  engines,  and,  till  more  is  demanded  of 
the  engines,  it  is  useless  to  provide  machines  so  powerful. 
This  state  of  affairs  is  probably  due  to  the  comparatively 
good  quality  of  the  fuel  burned  in  Great  Britain,  which 
enables  engines  with  not  more  than  ten  wheels  to  do 
everything  that  is  wanted,  whereas  in  America  much 
larger  engines  with  twelve  wheels  have  long  been  com- 
mon, and  there  are  a  good  many  such  machines  in  use 
on  the  Continent  of  Europe. 

If  the  locomotives  of  the  Great  Western  perform  the 
hardest  work  in  England  in  a  thoroughly  satisfactory 
manner,  the  newest  rolling  stock  which  runs  on  the 
principal  expresses  is  equally  admirable  as  far  as  ease 
and  smoothness  of  running  are  concerned,  though, 
unfortunately,  the  space  allowed  each  passenger  is  not 
quite  so  liberally  measured  as  might  be  desired. 

The  Great  Western,  possibly  owing  to  the  high 
pressures  employed  in  a  good  many  of  the  boilers,  has 
gone  in  largely  for  softening  the  water  chemically  before 
it  is  supplied  to  the  engines.  One  big  installation  is 
situated  near  Goring  on  the  main  line  to  Bristol  for 
filling  the  water  troughs,  which  are  there  laid  down 
on  all  four  lines.  The  plant  consists  of  an  engine- 
house,  in  which  is  an  engine  for  pumping  the  water, 
and  two  steel  towers  about  fifty  feet  high,  in 
which  the  softening  process  takes  place.  The  principal 
impurity  found  in  the  Goring  water  is  carbonate  of 
lime,  and,  for  precipitating  this,  quick-lime  dissolved 


182       RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

in  water  is  employed.  A  mixture  in  the  right  pro- 
portions, ascertained  by  periodical  chemical  tests,  is 
made  at  the  top  of  one  of  the  towers,  and  once  in  twelve 
hours  the  charge  is  passed  down  to  the  bottom  of  the 
tower  and  up  again  through  pipes,  in  which  it  gets 
thoroughly  mixed  with  more  water,  till  a  liquid  is  pro- 
duced the  colour  of  milk  (known  as  milk  of  lime).  This 
is  added  gradually  to  the  hard  water,  which  is  con- 
tinually being  pumped  up  to  the  top  of  the  first  tower. 
The  water  is  then  directed  down  a  pipe  in  the  middle  of 
the  adjoining  tower,  from  the  bottom  of  which  it  rises 
again  through  a  number  of  pipes,  in  which  are  placed 
spiral  plates,  which  offer  a  very  large  surface  for  the 
deposit  of  the  impurities  which  the  chemical  action  of 
the  milk  of  lime  has  precipitated.  The  softened  water, 
after  passing  out  from  the  tops  of  these  pipes,  through 
which  it  has  slowly  ascended,  rises  through  a  filter, 
which  collects  any  solid  matter  that  may  not  have  been 
precipitated  on  to  the  spiral  plates,  and  thence  runs 
away  from  the  top  of  the  second  tower  into  the  reservoir, 
whence  it  is  drawn  upon,  as  required.  Nearly  half  a 
million  gallons  of  soft  water — that  is  well  over  two 
thousand  tons — are  required  on  a  normal  day.  All 
this  water  does  not,  however,  find  its  way  into  the 
tenders,  as  a  great  deal  is  spilled  during  the  process  of 
picking  up  water  at  speed — so  much,  indeed,  that  it 
has  been  found  worth  while  to  collect  as  much  of  the 
overflow  as  possible,  and  lead  it  back  by  a  special  pipe 
to  the  well,  from  which  the  hard  water  is  drawn. 

The  Great  Western,  ever  since  it  got  rid  of  the 
Swindon  stop,  has  been  noted  for  the  number  of  long 
runs  which  its  engines  perform.  Directly  the  stop  at 
Swindon  was  cut  out  some  of  the  trains  began  to  run 


THE  EAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        183 

through  to  Bristol  (118|  miles  via  Bath)  ;  soon  after- 
wards runs  to  Exeter  (194  miles)  were  introduced  ;  and 
for  a  year  or  two  before  the  opening  of  the  line  to  the 
West,  via  Westbury,  the  246  miles  between  Paddington 
and  Plymouth,  via  Bristol,  used  to  be  run  without  a 
stop.  The  distance  to  Plymouth  has  now  been  reduced 
to  225f  miles,  but  this  still  gives  the  Great  Western 
the  longest  non-stop  run  in  the  world,  though  the 
North  Western  and  Midland,  which  in  summer  both 
have  runs  of  over  200  miles,  are  not  far  behind.  The 
runs  performed  on  the  Plymouth  line  are  longer  than 
those  found  on  the  other  main  lines  of  the  Great 
Western,  but  along  all  its  principal  lines  there  are  a 
considerable  number  of  trains  running  distances  of  well 
over  100  miles  without  a  stop.  All  over  England, 
indeed,  such  runs  are  much  more  numerous  than  are 
to  be  found  in  any  other  country.  Considering  the 
relatively  small  area  of  England,  this  is,  at  first  sight, 
rather  a  remarkable  fact.  Looked  at  a  little  closer,  it 
is  less  surprising.  The  circumstances  which  create  a 
demand  for  long  non-stop  runs  are  the  existence  of  very 
large  towns,  which  can  provide  train  loads  of  people 
all  of  whom  wish  to  perform  one  particular  journey  ; 
and  England,  with  her  large  urban  populations  widely 
distributed  at  considerable  distances  from  the  Metro- 
polis, but  at  the  same  time  close  enough  not  to  make 
the  time  necessary  to  complete  the  journey  a  serious 
deterrent,  offers  conditions  which  are  very  favourable 
to  the  development  of  long-distance  non-stop  runs. 
In  America  and  on  the  Continent  of  Europe,  where  the 
conditions  are  different,  the  number  of  such  runs  is  much 
smaller.  The  Prussian  State  Kailways  have  lately  put 
on  a  fair  number  of  trains  making  very  long  runs ; 


184        RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

there  is  one  train  each  way  between  Berlin  and  Ham- 
burg which  covers  the  178|  miles  separating  those 
cities  without  a  stop,  and  for  some  time  trains  have  run 
each  way  daily  between  Berlin  and  Hanover  (158  miles) 
also  without  a  stop.  In  France  there  is  no  regular  run 
of  so  much  as  150  miles  without  a  stop,  and  in  America, 
though  some  of  the  New  York-Chicago  expresses  per- 
form very  long  runs,  the  total  number  of  such  runs  is 
not  great. 

As  the  length  of  run  performed  without  a  stop 
increases,  so  also  do  the  difficulties  of  serving  inter- 
mediate stations,  at  which  the  express  trains  do  not 
call.  When  the  number  of  long  runs  performed  on  the 
Great  Western  is  considered,  it  is  not  surprising  to 
find  that  this  line  is  the  one  on  which  the  practice  of 
slipping  carriages  at  speed  has  reached  its  greatest 
development.  Particularly  is  this  the  case  with  the 
West  of  England  expresses,  from  which  Westbury, 
Taunton,  and  Exeter  all  receive  slips.  Many  people 
living  at  intermediate  places  along  this  line  have  to 
deplore  the  impossibility  of  attaching  carriages  at 
speed  in  the  same  way  as  they  arc  detached,  for  they 
find  the  up  journey  a  much  longer  and  more  tiresome 
business  than  the  down  journey. 

A  serious  attempt  has  been  made  during  the  last 
few  years  to  increase  local  traffic  by  running  rail- 
motors,  or  short  trains  so  arranged  that  they  can  be 
driven  from  either  end  without  any  change  in  the 
position  of  the  locomotive,  which  is  sometimes  placed 
at  one  end  and  sometimes  in  between  two  carriages. 
The  Great  Western  has  been  particularly  active  in 
introducing  rail-motors.  They  are  very  easy  and  con- 
venient to  handle,  and  quite  cheap  to  build  and  keep 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        185 

in  repair.  Beyond  this  the  principal  advantage  which 
they  offer  is  that  the  passengers  can  be  taken  up  or 
set  down  at  places  where  it  would  not  pay  to  build  a 
regular  station.  A  short,  cheap  wooden  platform, 
with  no  booking  office  and  no  station  staff,  is  all  that  is 
required,  and,  in  some  cases,  even  this  can  be  dispensed 
with,  and  the  passengers  taken  up  or  set  down  at  a 
level  crossing  or  other  convenient  point,  in  a  manner 
which  would  be  impossible,  or  at  least  highly  un- 
desirable, with  an  ordinary  train.  In  this  manner  it  is 
possible  to  give  facilities  for  short-distance  journeys, 
which  would  otherwise  either  not  be  made  at  all,  or  be 
made  by  some  means  other  than  by  rail.  A  consider- 
able part,  therefore,  of  the  traffic  conducted  in  motor 
vehicles  must  be  regarded  as  entirely  new  traffic,  which, 
so  far  as  the  railways  are  concerned,  would  otherwise 
not  have  existed  at  all.  The  distances  covered  being 
short,  and  the  passengers,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
few,  the  conditions  are  simplified  as  much  as  possible 
in  every  way,  and  one  class  has  to  suffice.  Motor 
vehicles  are,  indeed,  less  part  of  the  ordinary  train 
service  than  glorified  omnibuses,  which  are  introduced 
to  give  extra  facilities  in  certain  special  places,  where 
there  happens  to  be  a  sphere  of  usefulness  for  them. 
But  that  the  number  of  places,  where  they  can  profitably 
be  used,  is  considerable,  is  shown  by  the  numbers 
which  have  been  introduced  since  the  feasibility  of  the 
system  was  recognised. 

When  the  Great  Western  finally  got  rid  of  the  broad 
gauge,  it  had  the  opportunity  of  making  to  some  extent 
a  fresh  start,  and,  in  order  to  ensure  a  really  prosperous 
future,  it  seems  to  have  made  up  its  mind  to  a  bold 
expenditure  of  capital  in  every  direction,  where  such 


186        RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

expenditure  promised  a  good  return.  One  of  the 
things  which  it  determined  to  have  was  first-class 
permanent  way,  and  it  may  confidently  be  said  that  the 
new  permanent  way  laid  during  recent  years  on  various 
parts  of  the  Great  Western  is  unsurpassed. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  difference  between  permanent 
way  which  is  perfectly  safe,  and  permanent  way  which, 
besides  being  safe,  is  really  good.  The  former  is  the 
indispensable  minimum,  universally  attained  in  this 
country,  but  it  is  only  necessary  to  travel  about  on  the 
different  lines  to  discover  that  some  approach  the  latter 
standard  much  more  closely  than  others.  The  extra 
expense  necessary  to  lay  down  permanent  way  of  the 
latter  class  is  considerable,  and  though,  regarded  as  an 
investment,  it  is  sure  in  the  end  to  bring  in  a  handsome 
return,  railway  companies  sometimes  shrink  from 
incurring  it.  In  comparison  with  a  merely  safe  per- 
manent way,  a  really  good  and  well-kept  permanent 
way  enables  an  engine  to  haul  heavier  trains  with  the 
same  expenditure  of  fuel,  occasions  less  wear  and  tear 
to  the  rolling  stock,  is  pleasanter  to  travel  upon,  and 
cheaper  to  maintain. 

In  early  days  various  forms  of  permanent  way  were 
tried,  but  now  for  a  long  time  the  only  sort  of  road  used 
in  Great  Britain  is  the  familiar  one,  in  which  the  rails 
are  supported  in  chairs  fixed  to  transverse  sleepers, 
and  secured  in  the  chairs  by  means  of  wooden  keys. 
Except  for  one  thing,  this  form  of  road  seems  to  be  as 
good  as  any  that  could  be  devised.  That  one  thing  is 
the  joint  connecting  the  ends  of  the  rails,  and  this — a 
weak  spot  in  any  kind  of  permanent  way — is,  perhaps, 
slightly  more  troublesome  in  a  chair  road  than  in  a 
road  laid  with  flat-footed  rails.  In  a  perfect  road  the 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        187 

joint  would  be  as  strong  as  the  rest  of  the  rail,  and  there 
would  be  no  bump  as  the  wheel  passed  over  it.  Though 
inventors  by  the  score  have  produced  new  forms  of 
joint,  none  has  ever  yet  satisfied  these  requirements, 
and  the  ordinary  fishplates  are  still  almost  universally 
used,  the  only  important  difference  between  the  different 
kinds  being  that  some  are  longer  than  others.  As  the 
longer  ones  work  with  a  more  advantageous  leverage, 
they  are  somewhat  the  more  efficient,  but,  whereas  when 
flat-footed  rails  are  used,  as  in  America  and  over  the 
greater  part  of  the  Continent  of  Europe,  it  is  possible  to 
use  fishplates  of  any  required  length,  in  British  roads 
the  presence  of  chairs  used  to  support  the  bull-headed 
rails,  makes  it  difficult  to  use  any  but  quite  short  fish- 
plates. Remedies  do  indeed  exist  for  this  ;  one  form  of 
remedy,  for  instance,  is  applied  on  certain  foreign 
railways,  which  use  a  chair  road.  It  consists  in  the 
use,  on  the  sleepers  on  either  side  the  joint,  of  chairs 
with  jaws  wide  enough  to  embrace  both  the  rail  and 
the  fishplates,  together  with  the  usual  wooden  key.  A 
certain  complication  is  thereby  introduced,  as  two 
patterns  of  chair  are  necessary,  but  this  is  a  very  small 
matter,  and,  as  some  arrangement  of  this  kind  is  a 
fairly  simple  way  of  increasing  the  strength  of  the 
weakest  part  of  the  road,  it  is  likely  to  be  more  widely 
used  than  it  is  at  present.  But  practically  all  that  is 
now  done  in  England  to  increase  the  strength  of  the 
joint  is,  in  some  cases,  to  lay  the  sleepers  on  either  side 
of  it  nearer  together  than  the  rest  of  the  sleepers  are 
laid,  and  to  use  extra  big  sleepers  in  these  positions. 
No  fishplates,  however,  which  are  now  employed  any- 
where provide  anything  like  a  perfect  road,  and  the 
rail  joints  are  one  of  the  very  few  things  connected  with 


188        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

railways  which  are  still  conspicuously  defective.  Three- 
quarters  of  the  fatigue  of  travelling  is  clue  to  the  endless 
succession  of  bumps,  of  which  imperfect  rail- joints  are 
the  cause,  and  a  large  part  of  the  wear  and  tear  of 
both  road  and  rolling  stock  is  due  to  the  same  thing. 
If  it  is  not  possible  to  affirm  that  a  perfect  rail- joint 
will  never  be  found,  it  is  at  least  safe  to  say  that  nothing 
of  the  kind  has  so  far  come  to  the  fore  ;  and  there  are 
very  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  inventor,  as  any 
considerable  complication  is  clearly  inadmissible. 

Fishplates  are  designed  so  as  to  make  the  joints  as 
strong  as  the  rails  which  they  connect  together,  and, 
theoretically  at  least,  when  the  joints  are  in  good  order, 
the  form  of  the  wave-like  depressions  made  in  the  rail 
by  the  trains  is  almost  exactly  the  same  when  they  pass 
through  the  joint,  as  it  is  at  every  other  point  in  their 
paths.  But,  however  this  may  be  in  theory,  in  practice 
the  unpleasant  bump  of  each  wheel  as  it  crosses  each 
joint,  is  always  more  or  less  perceptible. 

In  old  days  the  rails  were  made  of  wrought  iron, 
but,  now  for  a  long  time,  steel  has  been  the  only  material 
employed.  Steel  is  made  in  different  ways — almost 
always  by  some  variety  of  the  "  open  hearth  "  process- 
but  the  object  of  all  is  of  course  to  produce  a  metal  of 
the  required  hardness  and  toughness  ;  this  result  is 
attained  partly  by  attention  to  the  chemical  composi- 
tion of  the  metal,  and  partly  also  by  arranging  that, 
while  its  temperature  is  between  certain  limits,  it  shall 
undergo  an  adequate  amount  of  compression  between 
the  rolls  of  the  rolling  mills.  Rail  steel  is  iron  which 
contains  small  quantities  of  other  elements — carbon  is 
the  principal  hardening  agent,  and  there  are  also 
various  other  things,  which  have  more  or  less  valuable 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        189 

effects.  The  amounts  of  all  these  ingredients  have  to 
be  very  carefully  regulated,  as,  in  almost  every  case, 
an  excess  or  deficiency  would  have  very  undesirable 
results.  A  good  many  endeavours  have  lately  been 
made  to  produce  steel  which  will  cause  the  rails  to  take 
longer  to  wear  away  than  is  now  the  case,  and,  for  this 
purpose,  variations  are  made  in  the  process  of  manufac- 
ture, some  of  which  involve  the  use  of  an  additional 
ingredient,  like  chromium  or  nickel.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  some  of  these  special  steels  show  great  resistance 
to  wear,  and  in  particular  places,  where  the  wear  of 
ordinary  rails  is  excessive,  offer  considerable  possi- 
bilities of  economy. 

Since  the  inception  of  railways  there  has  been  a 
continuous  tendency  toward  the  employment  of  longer 
and  longer  rails,  and  of  late  this  tendency  has  been  a 
very  marked  one,  the  length  in  many  cases  having 
been  increased  from  30  ft.  to  36,  45  and  even  60  ft. 
This,  of  course,  correspondingly  decreases  the  number 
of  rail- joints,  though,  as  the  intervals  left  for  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  rails  by  heat  have  to  be  increased,  the 
ends  of  the  rails  may  get  a  little  more  knocked  about. 
If  it  were  not  for  the  necessity  of  allowing  for  expansion, 
it  would  be  a  fairly  simple  matter  to  weld  together  the 
ends  of  adjoining  rails,  and  so  get  rid  of  rail- joints 
altogether  ;  and,  who  knows  but  that  some  genius  may 
arise  who  will  discover  a  steel  alloy  which  does  not 
expand  when  heated  ? 

The  bull-headed  rail,  in  almost  universal  use  in 
Great  Britain,  has  two  heads  ;  the  upper  one  is  large 
and  heavy  and  so  designed  as  to  allow  it  to  be  much 
worn  away  before  it  is  sufficiently  weakened  to  render 
it  no  longer  serviceable  ;  the  lower  one,  equally  broad, 


190        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

has  less  depth,  and  serves  to  support  the  rail  in  the 
chairs.  The  total  depth  of  a  heavy  modern  rail  is 
usually  about  5|  ins.  The  rails  are  laid  to  lean 
inwards,  with  an  inclination  of  1  in  20,  so  as  to  corre- 
spond to  the  conical  shape  of  the  wheel  flanges.  For 
curves  of  large,  or  fairly  large,  radius,  the  rails  are  not 
bent,  and,  in  reality,  form  series  of  tangents  to  a  circle. 
The  weight  of  the  rails,  though  at  first  sight  the 
most  important  element  in  the  strength  of  the  road, 
is  really,  within  fairly  wide  limits,  a  matter  of  minor 
concern.  On  main  lines,  rails  weighing,  when  new, 
anything  from  90  Ibs.  to  100  Ibs.  a  yard  are  employed, 
and,  as  they  may  all  be  worn  down  to  well  under  80  Ibs. 
a  yard,  and  still  be  capable  of  supporting  the  heaviest 
trains,  there  is  in  all  cases  a  wide  margin  of  strength. 
The  Midland  and  Great  Northern  are  the  lines  which 
use  the  heaviest  rails,  both  having  a  100-lb.  type. 
There  are,  however,  certain  places  like  the  Forth  Bridge, 
where  specially  designed  rails  of  yet  greater  weight  are 
in  use.  The  greater  the  weight  and  strength  of  the 
rails,  the  greater  the  factor  of  safety ;  and  the  weight 
and  strength  of  those  used  in  British  roads  compares 
not  unfavourably  with  the  weight  and  strength  of 
those  used  in  other  countries.  As  a  considerable  part 
of  the  metal  of  a  flat-footed  rail  is  utilised  to  form  the 
broad  foot,  which  adds  very  little  to  the  rails'  stiffness, 
bull-headed  rails  must  be  stronger,  weight  for  weight, 
than  flat-footed  rails.  Nevertheless,  the  weight  per 
yard  of  the  bull-headed  rails  used  in  Great  Britain,  is 
generally  greater  than  that  of  the  flat-footed  rails  used 
on  the  Continent,  and  about  the  same  as  that  of  the 
flat-footed  rails  used  on  the  best  laid  lines  in  the 
United  States.  On  the  Continent  the  maximum  stress, 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        191 

to  which  rails  may  be  subjected,  is  somewhat  less  than 
is  allowed  in  Great  Britain,  and  is  roughly  in  proportion 
to  the  smaller  strength  of  the  rails,  but  in  the  United 
States  the  rails  are  allowed  to  undergo  maximum 
stresses  at  least  30  per  cent,  greater,  weight  for  weight, 
than  is  allowed  in  Great  Britain. 

Some  years  ago  it  became  apparent  that  there  was 
in  practice  so  little  difference  between  the  advantages 
offered  by  the  different  sections  of  rails  most  generally 
in  use  in  Great  Britain  that  standard  sections  of  rails 
of  different  weights  might  be  designed  with  a  good 
prospect  of  their  being  widely  used.  This  was  there- 
fore done,  and  at  the  present  time  a  good  many  com- 
panies use  rails  of  these  standard  designs. 

The  best  British  permanent  way  has  always  been 
celebrated  for  its  solidity  and  the  smooth  running  which 
it  affords.  The  reason  for  this  is  not  far  to  seek,  and 
is  found  in  an  ample  margin  of  strength  in  the  principal 
elements  that  go  to  make  up  the  road.  The  wheels  of 
the  train  are  supported  upon  the  rail,  the  rail  rests 
upon  the  chairs,  the  chairs  are  secured  to  the  sleepers, 
and  the  sleepers  are  imbedded  in  the  ballast.  Good 
ballast  is,  therefore,  the  first  necessity  for  a  good  road. 
It  must  be  thick  enough  properly  to  distribute  the 
weight  of  a  passing  train  over  the  whole  subsoil, 
elastic  enough  to  give  the  smoothest  possible  running, 
binding  enough  to  prevent  the  least  horizontal  move- 
ments of  the  sleepers,  and  of  such  a  nature  as  to  retain 
no  moisture  in  itself,  and  to  allow  rain  to  drain  off 
rapidly.  The  sleepers  must  rest  firmly  on  the  ballast 
at  both  ends,  but  not  in  the  middle,  so  that  each  one 
supports  its  full  load  without  any  tendency  to  swing 
like  a  see-saw  round  a  fulcrum  ;  they  must  be  big  and 


192        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

strong  enough  to  support  the  loads  put  upon  them  ; 
elastic  enough  to  deaden  vibration ;  and  impervious 
to  wet  so  as  not  to  rot.  When  all  these  conditions  are 
assured,  the  chairs  and  the  rails,  which  they  hold, 
stand  on  a  really  satisfactory  base,  and  the  train  hums 
along  serenely.  Of  all  the  various  materials,  of  which 
the  very  important  ballast  is  composed,  none  is  so  well 
beloved  of  the  permanent  way  engineer  as  clean,  hard, 
broken  stone,  which  possesses  in  a  high  degree  a  com- 
bination of  the  desirable  qualities  enumerated,  and, 
although  expensive,  is  almost  always  worth  using  on 
lines  where  the  traffic  is  heavy.  The  bottom  layer  of 
ballast  is  usually  composed  of  large  heavy  stones, 
carefully  packed  by  hand. 

When  railways  were  first  introduced  a  great  deal  of 
experimenting  with  different  forms  of  permanent  way 
was  necessary  before  it  could  be  decided  which  were 
the  most  practical  forms  to  use.  Patterns  of  rail, 
which  should  give  great  stiffness,  together  with  enough 
bearing  surface  for  the  wheels  above  and  the  supports 
below  were  by  no  means  at  once  evolved,  while  the 
most  advantageous  method  of  laying  the  sleepers  was 
up  to  comparatively  recent  times,  a  matter  of  con- 
troversy. Longitudinal  sleepers  will  probably  never 
again  be  used,  except  in  special  places,  but  for  a  long 
time  the  supposed  advantages  of  affording  continuous 
support  to  the  rails  led  to  their  being  extensively  used 
in  some  parts  of  the  world,  and  the  proverbially 
smooth  running  of  the  old  broad  gauge  trains  on  the 
Great  Western  is  sufficient  evidence  that  a  very  good 
road  can  be  constructed  with  them.  The  compara- 
tively unwieldy  longitudinal  sleepers  are,  however, 
much  more  difficult  to  lay  and  to  renew  than  are  the 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        193 

easily-handled  transverse  sleepers,  and  there  are  several 
other  advantages  of  some  value  possessed  by  the  latter. 
As  each  transverse  sleeper  is  secured  to  both  rails,  it  is 
a  most  effective  means  of  preventing  the  road  from 
spreading,  whereas  longitudinal  sleepers  have  to  be 
specially  braced  together  at  intervals  for  this  purpose. 
Then,  one  of  the  first  requirements  for  a  good  permanent 
way  is  that  the  drainage  of  water  should  be  complete. 
Transverse  sleepers  offer  no  hindrance  to  efficient 
drainage,  but  longitudinal  sleepers,  by  pressing  down  the 
ballast  immediately  underneath  them,  tend  to  prevent 
the  free  escape  of  the  rain  which  falls  between  the  rails. 

In  British  permanent  way  the  sleepers  used  are 
unusually  thick  and  heavy,  but  not  so  closely  spaced 
as  is  customary  in  foreign  countries,  where  flat-footed 
rails  are  in  use.  Owing  to  the  comparatively  high 
price  of  timber  in  Great  Britain,  it  is  always  found 
economical  to  impregnate  the  sleepers  with  creosote, 
which  process  about  doubles  their  life  without  nearly 
doubling  their  cost.  The  use  of  creosote  has  another 
important  result,  as  it  has  the  effect  of  giving  the 
sleepers  a  life  approximately  as  long  as  that  of  the 
rails  which  they  support,  so  that,  when  the  sleepers 
are  worli  out,  the  rails  are  worn  out  also,  and  both  can 
be  renewed  together  at  one  operation. 

The  almost  universal  use  of  chairs  in  Great  Britain 
is  to  some  extent  due  to  the  softness  of  the  wood,  of 
which  the  sleepers  are  made  ;  the  wood  is  generally 
white  fir.  The  softness  of  the  sleepers  makes  it  neces- 
sary to  give  the  rails  a  greater  bearing  surface  on  the 
sleeper  than  would  be  provided  by  flat-footed  rails,  and 
so  chairs  are  interposed  for  the  purpose.  Flat-footed 
rails  can,  indeed,  be  provided  with  an  augmented 

o 


194        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

bearing  surface  without  the  use  of  chairs,  if  flat  steel 
plates  are  laid  between  rail  and  sleeper.  Steel  plates 
are,  however,  almost  as  much  of  a  complication  as 
chairs,  while  they  are  without  the  great  advantage, 
which  the  latter  have,  of  allowing  the  rails  to  be  taken 
out  and  replaced  quickly  and  easily.  They  are  also 
rather  inclined  to  clatter. 

An  important  point  in  the  construction  of  a  solid 
road  is  to  fasten  the  chairs  as  firmly  as  possible  to  the 
sleepers.  There  is  always  a  very  small  amount  of  play 
between  the  two,  but  much  can  be  done  to  reduce  this 
play  to  the  smallest  limits.  One  of  the  best  arrange- 
ments so  far  adopted  is  in  use  on  the  Great  Western. 
The  chair  is  cast  with  serrations  below,  which  engage 
with  corresponding  serrations  on  the  sleeper,  and  is 
fixed  down  under  a  pressure  as  great  as  it  will  have  to 
bear  in  service  by  means  of  two  bolts,  which  pass 
through  the  whole  thickness  of  the  sleeper,  with  heads 
underneath  it,  and  whose  upper  ends,  which  protrude 
above  the  chairs,  are  secured  by  nuts. 

The  enormous  numbers  of  sleepers  required  on  the 
railways  makes  the  question  of  their  supply  an  impor- 
tant one.  If  there,  are  80  to  100  million  sleepers  in  use 
on  the  railways  of  Great  Britain,  the  effect  of  a  small 
reduction  in  price,  or  increase  in  durability,  might  be 
considerable.  In  this  country  wooden  sleepers  are 
nearly  always  used,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  creosoted 
wooden  sleepers  combine  in  a  high  degree  the  qualities 
required  for  making  a  first-rate  road — toughness, 
elasticity,  and  little  tendency  to  shift  their  position. 
But  wood  is  by  no  means  the  only  material  of  which 
sleepers  can  be  made.  Iron  or  steel  sleepers  can  be 
employed,  and  possibly  some  form  of  armoured  concrete 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        195 

sleeper  will  be  found  to  possess  advantages.  Iron 
sleepers,  though  not  used  to  any  appreciable  extent  in 
Great  Britain,  are  widely  employed  in  some  parts  of 
Europe,  while  in  tropical  countries  they  are  often 
indispensable,  owing  to  the  attacks  which  insects  make 
upon  wooden  sleepers.  Metal  sleepers  are  generally 
made  somewhat  in  the  form  of  an  inverted  trough. 
They  are,  of  course,  quite  thin,  and  therefore,  unless 
the  metal  is  very  tough,  they  are  liable  to  crack.  The 
friction  against  the  ballast  is  very  much  less  than  that 
of  wooden  sleepers,  so  that  they  are  much  more  liable 
to  shift  their  position,  and  it  is  not  nearly  so  simple  a 
matter  to  fasten  the  rails  to  metal  sleepers  as  to  wooden 
ones.  There  are,  therefore,  considerable  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  adopting  metal  sleepers,  and  there  is  cer- 
tainly no  immediate  prospect  of  this  being  done  on  a 
large  scale  in  this  country.  But  it  is  always  possible 
that  circumstances  might  arise  which  would  make  metal 
sleepers  so  much  cheaper  than  wooden  ones,  that  there 
would  be  a  great  inducement  to  employ  them. 

A  very  good  idea  of  the  enormous  magnitude  of  the 
work  of  keeping  the  railways  supplied  with  sleepers  is 
got  by  paying  a  visit  to  one  of  the  places  where  the 
sleepers  are  received,  stored,  and  prepared  for  use. 
The  Great  Western  has  a  large  establishment  of  this 
kind  at  Hayes,  from  which  the  eastern  parts  of  the 
system  are  supplied,  though  there  are  several  points 
where  similar  work  is  carried  on  for  supplying  the  dis- 
tricts which  are  not  within  easy  reach  of  Hayes.  The 
Hayes  establishment  is  immediately  beside  the  main 
line,  and  lies  on  the  bank  of  a  canal  by  which  the 
sleepers  are  brought  to  it  on  barges.  On  being  un- 
loaded from  the  barges,  they  are  built  up  into  long 


196        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

stacks,  which  gradually  attain  a  height  of  some  40  feet 
beside  the  canal,  and  slope  away  to  a  height  of  some 
20  feet  or  so  on  the  landward  side.  The  building  of 
the  stacks  is  facilitated  by  this  slope,  which  enables  the 
sleepers,  as  they  are  unloaded  and  hauled  to  the  top  of 
the  pile  beside  the  canal,  to  be  lowered  by  gravity  on 
the  further  side.  A  sort  of  wooden  shoot,  fitted  with 
rollers,  is  used  to  help  in  this  operation.  It  is  laid  on 
the  top  of  a  stack,  anywhere  it  is  wanted,  and  the 
sleepers  are  made  to  slide  down  it.  The  full  capacity 
of  the  yard  is  about  300,000  sleepers,  enough  for  about 
140  miles  of  single  line  ;  they  are  left  in  the  stacks  to 
season  for  six  months  or  more.  The  tops  of  the  stacks 
are  made  accessible  from  the  ground,  without  the  use 
of  ladders,  by  stairways  made  of  sleepers,  which  are 
arranged  to  project  some  two  feet  from  the  stack.  It 
is  inadvisable  for  persons  who  are  liable  to  suffer  from 
giddiness  to  attempt  to  mount  these  stairways. 

The  sleepers,  before  being  creosoted,  are  prepared 
in  a  machine  tool  of  special  construction,  which  planes 
the  seatings  for  the  chairs  and  bores  holes  right  through 
the  sleeper  for  the  bolts,  which  are  used  in  the  latest 
Great  Western  practice.  This  is  done  before  the  sleeper 
is  creosoted,  in  order  to  allow  the  creosote  free  access  to 
the  various  incisions.  The  sleepers  are  now  loaded  on 
to  trucks,  which  run  along  a  narrow  gauge  line  to  the 
creosoting  cylinder.  Each  cylinder  is  some  70  ft. 
long,  and  6  ft.  in  diameter,  and  will  hold  about  300 
sleepers  at  a  time.  When  the  sleepers  have  been  run 
into  the  cylinder,  the  end  is  securely  closed  up,  and  the 
air  in  the  cylinder  exhausted  by  means  of  an  air 
pump.  When  a  high  vacuum  has  thus  been  created, 
the  creosote,  which  has  previously  been  heated  to  a 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        197 

temperature  of  about  120  degrees  F.  to  make  it 
sufficiently  liquid,  is  admitted  into  the  cylinder  from  an 
adjoining  tank,  and  a  large  quantity  is  at  once  absorbed 
by  the  sleepers.  The  amount  thus  absorbed  is,  however, 
not  enough,  and  after  the  cylinder  has  been  completely 
filled  with  creosote,  a  force  pump  is  set  to  work,  which, 
in  the  course  of  an  hour  or  so,  thoroughly  soaks  the 
sleepers  with  creosote  till  each  has  absorbed  about 
3|  gallons,  or  37  Ibs.  The  force  pump  is  then  stopped, 
the  unabsorbed  creosote  run  back  into  its  tank,  a  fresh 
vacuum  created,  which  cleans  off  the  surplus  creosote 
from  the  outside  of  the  sleepers,  and  the  process  of 
creosoting,  which  under  these  conditions  costs,  all  told, 
about  one  shilling  per  sleeper,  is  complete.  All  that 
now  remains  to  be  done  before  the  sleepers  are  ready 
to  be  sent  out  for  use,  is  to  take  them  to  a  shed,  where 
the  chairs  are  fastened  on  accurately  to  gauge.  They 
are  then  loaded  on  to  the  peculiar  long  low  four-wheeled 
trucks  on  which  they  are  sent  out  wherever  they  are 
wanted. 

At  Hayes,  besides  the  sleepers  of  ordinary  wood, 
there  were  a  small  number  made  of  various  Australian 
hard  woods,  which  require  no  creosoting,  and,  though 
considerably  dearer  than  the  ordinary  kind,  give 
promise  of  having  so  much  longer  a  life  as  to  make 
their  use  economical. 

The  rails,  owing  to  the  heavy  moving  loads,  which 
are  constantly  passing  over  them,  and  to  the  strains 
due  to  the  application  of  the  brakes,  are  practically 
always  creeping — i.e.  very  slowly  moving  along  length- 
wise in  the  direction  of  the  traffic.  This  movement  is 
very  irregular  in  amount,  but  it  is  often  necessary  to 
readjust  a  line  every  few  months.  The  readjustment 


198        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

is  fortunately  a  fairly  expeditious  process.  The  keys 
are  knocked  away  from  three  or  four  rail  lengths  at  a 
time,  the  fishplates  loosened,  and  the  rails  moved  back 
to  their  proper  places  by  a  gang  of  some  twenty-five 
platelayers,  and  made  fast  again  in  a  few  minutes.  A 
more  mysterious,  and  often  more  troublesome  affection 
of  the  permanent  way,  is  the  tendency  of  the  running 
surfaces  of  some  rails  not  to  wear  away  evenly,  but  to 
work  into  corrugations  ;  these  may  easily  become  so 
pronounced  as  to  make  it  necessary  to  replace  an  other- 
wise quite  serviceable  rail  on  account  of  the  rough 
running  which  it  causes.  The  noise,  too,  which  is 
caused  by  corrugated  rails,  may  be  very  objectionable, 
and  in  some  places  has  been  sufficiently  annoying  to 
people  living  in  houses  adjoining  the  railway  to  make 
it  necessary  to  replace  the  rails  for  this  reason  alone. 
The  corrugations,  which  generally  occur  at  intervals  of 
a  few  inches,  appear  most  capriciously — sometimes  all 
the  rails  for  a  considerable  distance  may  be  affected, 
sometimes  only  one  here  and  there.  And  the  reason  of 
the  appearance  of  the  corrugations  is  most  uncertain. 
Some  engineers  are  convinced  that  it  is  due  to  faulty 
rolling  of  the  rails — they  surmise  that  the  rail  is  allowed 
to  get  too  cold  before  it  is  put  through  the  last  set  of 
rolls,  so  that  the  surface  becomes  case-hardened,  and 
is  not  homogeneous  with  the  rest  of  the  rail.  The 
manufacturers  probably  do  not  concur  in  this  view. 
Yet  another  trouble  connected  with  the  rails  is  that, 
under  the  stress  of  traffic,  they  tend  to  get  bent  per- 
manently in  a  vertical  plane — each  length  of  rail  'gets 
higher  in  the  middle  than  at  the  ends.  This  deforma- 
tion proceeds  very  slowly,  and,  though  it  sometimes 
happens  that  it  is  necessary  to  take  the  rails  out  and 


THE  EAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        199 

straighten  them,  this  is  only  done  exceptionally. 
Deformation  of  this  kind  is  sometimes  sufficient  to 
impart  to  the  rolling  stock  a  slight  heaving  motion, 
which  is  quite  perceptible,  at  any  rate  upon  the  engine. 

The  provision  of  improved  crossings  is  a  matter  to 
which  some  attention  is  now  being  paid.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances,  wherever  the  path  of  one  rail 
crosses  that  of  another,  space  is  left  to  give  a  passage 
to  the  flanges  of  the  wheels,  with  the  result  that  the 
bearing  surface  is  not  continuous,  and  the  wheels  are 
exposed  to  blows  of  considerable  violence,  which  are 
not  at  all  good  for  them,  or  for  the  vehicles  which  they 
support.  The  advantage  of  the  ordinary  system  of 
crossings  is  that  there  are  no  movable  parts,  and  there- 
fore there  is  no  necessity  for  setting  the  rails  in  one  or 
other  direction  for  the  different  trains.  But,  by  intro- 
ducing a  certain  number  of  movable  parts  it  is  possible 
to  eliminate  the  vacant  spaces,  and,  although  this 
increases  the  complication,  it  is  probably  worth  while 
to  get  rid  of  the  heavy  blows  to  the  wheels,  which 
ordinary  crossings  involve.  An  advantage  of  such  an 
arrangement  is  that  the  paths  of  the  rails  at  diamond 
crossings  can  be  set  at  a  much  more  acute  angle  to  one 
another  than  can  be  done  with  safety  at  ordinary 
diamond  crossings,  where  it  is  not  permissible  to  have 
crossings  flatter  than  1  in  8. 

To  arrive  at  some  conclusion  as  to  the  size  of  engine 
wanted  to  work  a  train  of  given  weight  at  a  given  speed 
it  is  important  to  know,  as  nearly  as  possible,  how  much 
power  is  required  to  move  rolling  stock  of  different 
kinds  along  the  rails  at  various  speeds.  As  the  per- 
manent way  has  gradually  become  stiff er  and  stronger, 
and  the  rolling  stock  more  flexible  and  smoother 


200        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BEITAIN 

running,  the  trains  have  become  easier  to  haul,  so  that 
the  older  formulae  for  calculating  the  train  resistance 
have  passed  completely  out  of  date.  Even  when  the 
types  of  permanent  way  and  rolling  stock  are  known, 
the  problem  is  not  susceptible  of  a  really  accurate 
solution  owing  to  the  very  varying  conditions  which 
exist.  On  a  level  line,  the  resistances  which  have  to 
be  overcome  in  order  to  keep  a  train  in  motion,  are 
principally  those  due  to  the  friction  in  the  axle  bearings 
and  of  the  wheels  against  the  rails,  to  the  air  which  the 
train  displaces  as  it  proceeds,  and  to  the  fact  that  the 
train,  as  it  runs  along,  slightly  depresses  the  line,  in 
which  process  a  considerable  amount  of  energy  is 
consumed.  But  many  circumstances  may  modify 
these  various  resistances — differences  in  the  strength 
and  evenness  of  the  permanent  way,  the  kind  of 
lubricant  used  in  the  axle-boxes,  the  direction  of  the 
wind,  and  so  on.  Nevertheless,  attempts  have  been 
made  to  arrive  at  results  which  correspond  nearly 
enough  to  average  conditions  to  be  used  as  a  basis  of 
calculation.  Different  investigators  naturally  are  not 
in  complete  agreement  with  one  another,  but  with  good 
passenger  rolling  stock  in  good  condition  it  may  be 
assumed  that  the  average  pull  needed  to  keep  one  ton 
moving  at  30  miles  an  hour  is  6  Ibs.  ;  at  60  miles  an 
hour  15  Ibs.  are  required,  and,  for  speeds  higher  than 
this,  the  resistance  increases  by  about  1  Ib.  for  every 
2  miles  an  hour.  These  resistances  apply,  of  course, 
only  to  trains  moving  on  the  level.  For  trains  running 
up  or  down  hill,  the  effect  of  gravity  has  also  to  be  taken 
into  consideration,  but  this  is  always  exactly  pro- 
portional to  the  rise  or  fall  of  the  line,  and  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  determining  what  it  is  in  each  case. 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        201 

The  South  Western,  alone  among  the  big  railways 
serving  the  Metropolis,  has  refrained  from  building 
itself  a  terminus  north  of  the  Thames,  and  it  has  thus 
avoided  the  necessity  of  making  a  big  bridge  across  the 
river.  In  and  around  London,  indeed,  the  South 
Western  possesses  few  works  of  any  architectural  or 
engineering  interest.  Waterloo  Station,  in  particular, 
has  not,  up  to  now,  ranked  as  one  of  the  principal 
glories  of  the  Capital.  With  its  narrow  platforms, 
steep,  inconvenient  approaches,  and  cramped  buildings, 
it  has  been  more  in  keeping  with  its  dingy  surroundings, 
than  worthy  of  its  importance  as  the  terminus  of  a  great 
railway.  It  has,  indeed,  never  been  anything  but  a 
provisional  structure,  destined  to  endure  only  until 
convenient  opportunities  should  arise  for  its  gradual 
reconstruction.  That  reconstruction  has  now  begun 
with  the  erection  of  the  new  South  station,  and  clear- 
ances have  been  made  on  the  north  side,  which  will 
give  more  much-needed  space,  and  pave  the  way  for 
the  very  difficult  and  complicated  work  of  entirely 
remodelling  the  rest  of  the  old  structure. 

Waterloo  Station  was  something  of  an  after- thought, 
and,  from  the  original  terminus  at  Nine  Elms,  an 
elaborate  and  costly  viaduct  has  been  necessary,  and 
the  greatest  economy  of  space  has  naturally  been 
practised.  But  at  Nine  Elms  the  South  Western  has 
its  operations  much  facilitated  by  the  possession  of  a 
considerable  area  of  ground,  so  much,  indeed,  that 
till  quite  lately  the  locomotive  works  were  situated 
there. 

Though  the  South  Western  is  principally  a  passenger 
line,  the  fact  that  all  its  London  goods  traffic,  instead 
of  being  divided  up  between  a  number  of  smaller 


202        KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

stations,  is  dealt  with  at  Nine  Elms  makes  that  a  very 
busy  place.  Arrangements  at  goods  stations  are,  like 
many  other  things,  in  the  nature  of  a  compromise 
between  what  is  desirable  and  what  is  practicable.  At 
Nine  Elms  the  main  goods  sheds  and  yard  lie  between 
the  viaduct  carrying  the  main  line  to  Waterloo,  and  a 
frequented  roadway.  On  the  other  side  of  the  road 
lies  a  wharf,  and,  as  there  is  no  difference  in  the  levels, 
wagons  have  at  intervals  to  be  passed  over  the  roadway 
itself  on  their  way  between  the  wharf  and  the  goods 
station  proper.  Certain  heavy  and  bulky  goods,  too, 
are  dealt  with  on  the  further  side  of  the  viaduct,  so  the 
place  is  very  much  divided  up,  and  certain  natural 
difficulties  are  encountered  in  working  it,  as  is  often  the 
case  in  London  and  other  big  towns,  where  land  is 
valuable  and  difficult  to  secure,  and  the  cost  of  re- 
modelling is  prohibitive.  The  original  passenger  ter- 
minus of  the  railway,  Nine  Elms,  is  even  now  not 
entirely  delivered  over  to  the  goods  traffic  ;  it  is  still 
used  for  the  military  traffic  to  Aldershot  and  elsewhere, 
and  it  was  from  one  of  the  platforms  at  Nine  Elms  that 
a  great  part  of  the  British  Army  started  on  its  journey 
to  South  Africa  at  the  time  of  the  war.  But,  though 
Nine  Elms  may  occasionally  relieve  Waterloo  of  pas- 
senger traffic  of  special  kinds,  it  is  goods  in  never- 
ending  streams  that  provide  constant  employment  for 
the  staff  of  some  400  men,  which  is  attached  to  this 
station.  At  a  big  goods  station  like  Nine  Elms  work 
goes  on  for  practically  the  whole  of  the  twenty-four 
hours,  but  it  is  during  the  night,  from  about  7.30  P.M. 
to  5  or  6  the  following  morning,  that  the  greatest 
activity  prevails.  The  South  Western  finds  employ- 
ment for  about  500  horses  in  collecting  from  every  part 


THE  KAILWAYS  TO   THE   WEST        203 

of  London  goods  for  despatch  by  rail,  and,  though  the 
railway  is  always  glad  to  receive  goods  as  early  as 
possible,  it  is  not  till  about  7  P.M.  that  the  steady 
stream  of  railway  drays  and  vans,  supplemented  by 
those  of  public  carriers  and  of  private  persons,  begins 
to  pour  in  at  the  gates  and  range  itself  along  the  plat- 
form, on  to  which  the  contents  of  these  vehicles  are 
unloaded  preparatory  to  being  loaded  again  into  the 
trains,  which  leave  at  intervals  throughout  the  night 
for  all  parts  of  the  South  Western  system. 

To  anyone  walking  about  the  great  despatching 
shed  at  Nine  Elms,  the  extraordinarily  retail  character 
of  the  trade  of  the  country  is  brought  home,  when  the 
smallness  of  the  average  consignment  is  seen.  In  most 
cases  what  the  local  tradesman  or  distributor  seems  to 
do  is  to  forward  to  London  a  list  of  his  requirements, 
and,  by  return,  receive  all  the  things  he  wants,  sub- 
divided and  marked  in  such  a  manner  that  he  has  very 
little  left  to  do  but  hand  them  straight  on  to  his  cus- 
tomers. Under  these  circumstances  the  work  of  keep- 
ing correct  lists  of  all  the  different  consignments  and  of 
seeing  that  all  get  sent  to  their  proper  destinations — 
work  on  which  the  efficient  conduct  of  the  traffic  is 
entirely  dependent — becomes  a  matter  of  great  com- 
plication, and,  of  course,  adds  immensely  to  the  expense 
incurred  by  the  railway.  The  greater  part  of  this  work 
is  done,  as  the  packages  are  unloaded  from  the  drays, 
by  men  standing  at  desks  ranged  along  the  platform, 
who  receive,  check  and  weigh  the  consignments  de- 
livered, and  pass  them  on,  to  be  wheeled  by  porters  to 
the  wagons,  in  which  they  are  to  be  packed  and  sent 
off  ;  or,  if  no  wagon  for  the  right  destination  is  at  once 
available,  to  some  place  where  they  can  easily  be  got 


204        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

at  when  wanted.  Hydraulic  cranes  are  installed  at 
intervals  to  facilitate  the  handling  of  the  bulkier 
objects ;  but  the  cranes  are  not  much  used,  as  few  of  the 
packages  received  are  big  enough  to  make  this  necessary. 
In  order  to  ensure  an  expeditious  beginning  of  the 
various  operations  which  have  to  be  carried  out,  the 
men  who  receive  the  goods  are  paid  by  the  piece,  and 
are  able  to  earn  higher  wages  than  their  comrades  who 
are  paid  by  the  day  ;  but  that  no  unfairness  should 
result  from  this  arrangement,  all  the  men  employed, 
who  belong  to  certain  grades,  are  given  a  turn  at  this 
work  one  week  in  four.  When  the  packages  reach  the 
wagons,  in  which  they  are  to  travel,  further  checking 
is  necessary,  and  the  invoices  are  drawn  up,  while  the 
packers  proceed  with  the  work  of  firmly,  yet  tenderly, 
wedging  the  different  packages  together,  so  as  to  make 
the  best  use  of  the  space  at  their  disposal,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  make  it  practically  impossible  for  any 
package  to  break  loose,  or  fall  on  to  the  line.  This 
result  is  further  ensured  by  the  tarpaulin  sheet, 
with  which  the  wagon  is  covered  before  it  starts  off. 
That  the  weight-carrying  capacity,  at  least,  of  the 
wagons  is  not  fully  utilised,  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  at  Nine  Elms  it  is  calculated  that  the  average 
wagon-load  is  three  tons,  instead  of  the  ten  tons 
which  each  wagon  is  constructed  to  hold.  But  three 
tons  a  wagon  is  in  reality  a  very  good  result,  and 
much  superior  to  the  results  shown  in  many  other 
places. 

The  various  lines  of  rails  in  the  shed  will  accommodate 
something  over  150  wagons  at  a  time.  These  wagons, 
at  three  tons  each,  will  hold  a  very  respectable  quantity 
of  merchandise,  but  they  are  far  from  sufficient  to 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        205 

receive  all  that  offers  at  Nine  Elms  on  a  normal  evening, 
and,  as  the  night  wears  on,  the  old-fashioned  shunting 
engines,  which  ply  up  and  down  in  the  yard  outside, 
have  a  good  deal  of  work  to  do  in  hauling  out  the 
strings  of  wagons  which  are  already  loaded,  replacing 
them  with  empty  ones,  and  carrying  out  such  mar- 
shalling operations  as  are  necessary  to  complete  the 
different  trains,  and  get  the  wagons  for  the  different 
destinations  in  order,  so  that  those  which  are  to  be 
dropped  at  any  particular  station,  shall  always  be  in 
the  right  position  next  the  engine.  In  the  course  of 
the  night  three  wagons,  generally  speaking,  come  in 
empty  to  each  berth,  and  go  away  again  full.  Some  of 
the  wagons  are  for  places  such  as  Bath,  to  which  the 
South  Western  does  not  appear  to  supply  at  all  a  good 
route.  Now  that  there  is  no  longer  any  competition 
with  the  Great  Western,  one  wonders  why  arrange- 
ments are  not  made  to  send  everything  for  Bath  by 
that  line.  But  sentiment  plays  a  part  in  railway  busi- 
ness, and  there  are  firms  who  have  always  sent  their 
wares  by  the  South  Western,  and  would  feel  that  all 
their  arrangements  had  been  upset  if  they  could  no 
longer  do  so.  And,  as  a  difference  in  transit  time  of 
an  hour  or  two  during  the  night  is  of  no  importance,  a 
wagon  continues  to  be  dispatched,  when  necessary, 
from  Nine  Elms  to  Bath. 

In  another  shed,  next  to  the  one  just  described,  are 
drawn  up  wagons,  ready  to  receive  such  large  consign- 
ments as  come  in.  This  shed  is  arranged  so  as  to 
enable  the  drays  to  draw  up  on  one  side  of  a  platform, 
at  the  most  convenient  spot  for  their  contents  to  be 
loaded  straight  into  a  railway  wagon,  which  is  standing 
on  the  other  side.  In  this  way  the  goods  require  the 


206        KAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

least  possible  amount  of  handling,  and  are,  of  course, 
much  easier  to  deal  with  than  the  miscellaneous  collec- 
tions of  things  for  many  different  destinations,  which  are 
disposed  of  in  the  bigger  shed,  where,  moreover,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  there  are  several  railway  platforms,  but 
only  one  roadway,  it  is  in  most  cases  necessary  to  move 
them  some  distance,  between  the  time  they  are  un- 
loaded from  the  drays,  and  the  time  they  are  loaded 
again  on  to  the  railway  wagons.  Further  on,  again,  where 
goods  for  Southampton  Docks,  and  for  the  steamers 
serving  the  Channel  Islands  are  sent  off,  some  large  con- 
signments are  handled.  Half  a  wagon  load,  for  instance, 
of  cases  of  champagne,  consigned  to  New  York  by  way 
of  Southampton,  showed  that  the  American  tariff  does 
not  entirely  prevent  our  railways  from  earning  money 
by  forwarding  goods  to  the  United  States. 

The  different  trains  are  sent  off  as  far  as  possible 
in  such  order  as  will  cause  them  to  reach  their  destina- 
tions at  convenient  times  in  the  morning.  The  Ply- 
mouth train,  for  instance,  starts  at  10.30  p.m.,  and, 
running  probably  as  far  as  Exeter  before  it  drops  any 
wagons,  reaches  Plymouth  at  6.30  a.m.,  while  trains, 
which  are  to  run  only  short  distances,  do  not  leave  till 
perhaps  6  a.m. 

All  the  traffic  dealt  with  in  the  evening  is  outwards 
traffic,  but,  as  the  night  passes,  and  the  trains  are  sent 
off,  space  is  gradually  made  for  the  incoming  trains, 
which  will  begin  to  arrive  early  in  the  morning  with 
supplies  to  be  distributed  throughout  London  before 
a  great  part  of  the  world  is  awake.  Owing  to  the 
careful  order  in  which  all  these  things  will  arrive,  their 
reception  will  involve  much  less  labour  than  the 
despatch  of  the  outwards  goods  necessitates. 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        207 

It  is  not  surprising  to  learn  that  a  good  many  men, 
among  the  large  staff  employed,  are  unable  to  find 
satisfactory  dwellings  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood 
of  their  work  ;  to  overcome  this  difficulty,  the  men  are 
encouraged  to  live  in  the  outer  suburbs.  The  en- 
couragement is  supplied  by  their  being  allowed  by  the 
company  to  travel  to  and  from  their  work  free  of 
charge.  This  in  itself  must  be  accounted  a  very  con- 
siderable advantage.  But  the  men  receive  several 
other  miscellaneous  benefits  from  their  connection  with 
the  Company.  Up  to  their  retirement,  which,  it  is 
satisfactory  to  hear,  is  not  compulsory  at  any  par- 
ticular age,  but  may  be  deferred  so  long  as  their  health 
and  strength  endure,  they  receive  pensions,  to  which 
they  have  not  made  any  contribution,  and  there  is  a 
resident  doctor,  to  whom  they  have  access  without 
payment.  That  many  of  them  have  a  certain  amount 
of  money  to  spare  is  pretty  clearly  shown  by  the  fact 
that  there  is  a  constant  demand  for  the  privilege  tickets, 
which  are  issued  to  railway  servants  at  a  quarter  fare, 
while  at  Bank  Holiday  times  applications  are  received 
for  many  hundreds  of  such  tickets. 

At  Clapham  Junction,  four  miles  from  Waterloo, 
the  main  line  is  relieved  of  some  of  the  suburban 
traffic,  which  branches  off  along  the  Windsor  line. 
The  volume  of  suburban  traffic,  which  the  main  line 
has  to  accommodate,  still  remains  considerable  for 
some  distance,  but  the  existence  of  four  lines  of  rail  and 
of  several  flying  junctions,  helps  to  prevent  delays,  and 
otherwise  the  line  is  admirably  laid  out  in  a  series  of 
long  gentle  inclines  all  the  way  to  Salisbury. 

There  are  four  lines  of  rail  from  London  to  the  point 
where  the  Southampton  line  leaves  the  main  line  to  the 


208        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

west,  a  few  miles  beyond  Basingstoke.  The  capacity 
of  a  railway  with  four  lines  of  rails  is,  under  ordinary 
circumstances,  much  more  than  twice  as  great  as  that 
of  a  double  line,  because  the  pace  of  the  trains  varies 
a  great  deal,  and,  on  a  double  line,  it  is  impossible  to 
arrange  for  a  regular  succession  of  trains  at  very  short 
intervals  of  time.  To  get  the  greatest  value  out  of  a 
railway,  the  greatest  possible  tonnage  must  be  passed 
over  it  in  a  given  time,  and,  to  do  this,  the  ideal  con- 
ditions are  that  each  train  should  be  as  heavy  as  possible 
and  should  occupy  as  short  a  section  as  possible  of  the 
running  lines  for  as  short  a  space  of  time  as  possible,  and 
that  all  the  trains  should  be  run  at  the  same  speed. 
The  weight  of  a  train  is  generally  limited  from  con- 
siderations other  than  those  for  securing  the  greatest 
possible  economy,  but  by  increasing  the  number  of 
block  sections  up  to  the  manageable  limit,  the  capacity 
of  the  lines  may  be  proportionately  increased.  On 
underground  and  tube  railways,  where  all  the  trains 
run  at  exactly  the  same  speed,  and  the  block  sections 
are  also  very  short,  the  capacity  of  each  line  becomes 
very  great.  To  make  the  capacity  of  an  ordinary 
double  line  as  great  as  possible,  the  trains  have  to  be 
arranged  so  that  those  of  approximately  the  same  speed 
follow  one  another — -the  expresses  run  at  certain  times 
and  the  goods  trains  at  other  times — but  to  draw  up  a 
really  satisfactory  scheme  of  working  is  of  course  very 
difficult.  Where  the  traffic  is  very  great,  and  two  sets 
of  double  lines  are  laid,  the  working  is  much  facilitated, 
as  one  pair  of  lines  is  used  for  the  faster,  and  the  other 
for  the  slower,  traffic,  with  the  result  that  all  the  trains 
running  on  either  line  are  much  more  nearly  of  a  pace 
than  they  would  otherwise  be.  But  on  main  lines,  even 


THE  KAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        209 

when  there  are  four  lines  of  rails,  it  is  not  possible  to  do 
more  than  arrange  that  trains  using  the  same  lines  shall 
run  at  approximately  the  same  speed,  and,  in  order  to 
achieve  even  this,  goods  trains  are  frequently  run  faster 
than  would  otherwise  be  necessary. 

Where  trains  are  frequent  one  of  the  arrangements 
for  obviating  delays  and  increasing  the  safety  of  work- 
ing, is  the  use  of  flying  junctions.  There  are,  as  before 
remarked,  several  of  these  on  the  main  line  of  the  South 
Western.  In  the  case  of  a  main  line  where  a  branch 
line  deviates  to  the  right,  for  instance,  a  down  train, 
running  on  to  the  branch  line,  has,  at  ordinary  junctions, 
to  cross  over  the  up  main  line,  which  it  blocks  for  up 
main  line  trains.  If  a  flying  junction  is  used,  the  branch 
line  leaves  the  main  line  on  the  far  side,  and  then 
gradually  rises  or  falls  till  it  can  be  led  over  or  under 
the  main  lines,  thereby  rendering  any  suspension  of 
traffic  on  the  up  main  line  unnecessary,  and  making 
collisions  impossible.  There  are,  too,  other  advantages 
afforded  by  flying  junctions.  Wherever  a  line  diverges 
from  another,  which  is  straight,  it  is  advantageous  to 
make  the  curve  which  it  describes  as  flat  as  possible, 
and  to  give  the  outer  rail  an  adequate  amount  of  super- 
elevation, so  as  to  necessitate  as  small  a  reduction  of 
speed  as  possible.  In  the  case  of  ordinary  double  line 
junctions,  with  ordinary  crossings,  very  strict  limits 
are  set  to  the  maximum  radius  of  the  curve  described 
by  the  line,  which  diverges  from  the  straight,  and  then 
crosses  the  second  straight  line  at  an  angle  which  must 
not  be  sharper  than  1  in  8  ;  and,  to  make  matters 
worse,  it  is  only  beyond  the  crossing  that  any  super- 
elevation at  all  is  possible.  Both  of  these  difficulties 
are  avoided  in  flying  junctions. 

p 


210        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

Salisbury  Station  was  the  scene  of  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  accidents  that  has  ever  taken  place.  On 
June  30,  1906,  the  New  York  called  at  Plymouth  and 
landed  43  passengers  for  London,  who  started  off  late 
the  same  night  in  a  special  train.  This  train  ran 
without  a  stop  to  Templecombe,  which  was  reached 
punctually.  Here  engines  were  changed,  No.  421 
came  on,  and  the  train  started  off  again  at  1.26  a.m., 
being  timed  to  cover  the  remaining  112J  miles  to 
Waterloo  in  115  minutes.  A  few  minutes  were  lost 
on  the  steep  gradients  at  the  start,  and  partially 
regained  on  the  favourable  stretch  of  line  descending 
towards  Salisbury,  where  the  speed  seems  to  have 
risen  to  about  70  miles  an  hour — quite  a  normal  speed 
with  one  of  the  most  powerful  express  engines  and  a 
train  which  weighed  only  about  120  tons  behind  the 
tender.  But  just  beyond  Salisbury  Station  the  line 
bends  sharply  to  the  left,  and  it  had  been  most  explicitly 
laid  down  in  the  instructions,  issued  by  the  railway 
company  to  the  engine  drivers,  that  speed  must  be 
greatly  reduced  to  pass  over  this  curve  in  safety. 
Whether  the  driver — a  thoroughly  experienced  man- 
forgot  for  a  moment  where  he  was,  or  whether  he  was 
suddenly  taken  ill,  will  never  now  be  known ;  steam 
had  been  shut  off  and  the  whistle  sounded,  but  the 
brake  was  not  applied ;  the  train  dashed  through 
Salisbury  Station  at  a  speed  which  those  who  witnessed 
it  recognised  as  fraught  with  disaster.  At  a  point  just 
beyond,  where  the  line  is  on  a  curve  with  a  radius  of 
only  8  chains,  the  impetus  was  so  tremendous  that  the 
left-hand  side  of  the  engine  rose  into  the  air,  and  the 
engine  turned  over  on  to  her  right  side,  crashing,  as  she 
fell,  into  a  milk  train,  which  happened  to  be  passing 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        211 

on  the  adjoining  line.  The  first  four  out  of  the  five 
carriages,  of  which  the  express  was  composed,  were 
almost  completely  destroyed,  and  24  of  the  passengers 
and  the  driver  and  fireman  were  killed,  and  also  two 
other  railway  servants.  Both  the  engine  men  having 
lost  their  lives,  it  was  impossible  to  do  more  than 
theorise  as  to  how  it  happened  that  the  train  was 
allowed  to  rush  to  destruction  in  this  manner.  The 
speed  at  the  point  where  the  accident  took  place  ought 
to  have  been  not  more  than  30  miles  an  hour,  and  cal- 
culations which  were  afterwards  made  showed  that  a 
speed  of  about  67  miles  an  hour  was  necessary  to  over- 
turn the  engine  in  the  way  in  which  she  was  overturned. 
The  accident  was  in  every  way  noteworthy — when  one 
takes  place  owing  to  a  curve,  it  generally  occurs  through 
one  of  the  wheels  coming  off  the  line,  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether  more  than  quite  a  few  other  genuine  cases  of 
the  actual  overturning  of  an  engine  by  centrifugal  force 
have  ever  been  known.  The  fact  that  no  derailment, 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  took  place  at  all  bears 
witness  to  the  extraordinary  way  in  which  an  engine 
with  a  flexible  wheel-base — No.  421  is  an  8-wheel 
four-coupled  engine,  with  a  leading  bogie — running  over 
a  well-laid  line,  with  a  check  rail,  will  keep  the  rails  on 
a  very  sharp  curve  at  high  speeds. 

The  Salisbury-Exeter  section  of  the  South  Western 
is  one  of  the  most  difficult  lines  in  England.  Leaving 
Salisbury,  the  first  17  miles  are  an  almost  continuous 
ascent ;  in  the  next  17  miles  are  three  descents  and  two 
ascents,  all  steep,  and  in  places  as  much  as  1  in  80 ; 
next,  a  few  miles  of  comparative  level  brings  the  train 
to  Yeovil  Junction,  39  miles  from  Salisbury.  After 
this  there  are  three  principal  banks — 4  miles  at  1  in 


212        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

150  immediately  after  leaving  Yeovil  Junction  ;  3  miles 
at  1  in  80  to  a  summit  at  post  133J  ;  and,  worst  of  all, 
7  miles  from  post  146J  to  the  Honiton  tunnel,  of  which 
the  4j  miles  from  Seaton  Junction  are  at  1  in  80,  and 
the  rest  not  much  easier.  The  best  time  for  the  88 
miles  is  96  minutes,  which  is  just  55  miles  an  hour.  This 
would  be  a  respectable  speed  even  over  an  easy  line. 
If  the  difficulty  of  the  line  is  taken  into  consideration, 
this  timing  between  Salisbury  and  Exeter  is  the  most 
remarkable  in  Great  Britain.  There  is  practically  no 
level  ground  anywhere,  the  gradients  both  rising  and 
falling  are  exceptionally  steep,  and  nearly  all  the 
principal  ascents  are  long  enough  greatly  to  reduce  the 
speed  of  the  train  by  the  time  it  reaches  their 
summits. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  best  time  for  the  83|  miles 
from  Waterloo  to  Salisbury,  where  the  line  is  far 
easier,  is  91  minutes,  which  makes  the  average  speed 
only  the  same  as  for  the  96  minutes  Salisbury-Exeter 
run. 

Now  that  the  Great  Western's  new  main  line  to  the 
West,  via  Westbury,  has  been  opened,  the  distance  to 
Exeter  is  almost  the  same  by  either  route — the  South 
Western  has  only  about  two  miles  the  better  of  it.  If  a 
race  were  to  take  place  the  two  companies  should  be 
very  evenly  matched,  for,  though  the  South  Western 
gradients  are  the  harder,  there  are  on  the  Great  Western 
route  a  greater  number  of  curves  which  have  to  be 
traversed  slowly.  Exeter,  however,  in  comparison  with 
Plymouth,  is  a  small  place,  and  Plymouth  is  the  objec- 
tive of  both  lines.  As  the  crow  flies,  Plymouth  is  less 
than  40  miles  from  Exeter,  but  exactly  in  between  is 
the  high-lying  and  practically  uninhabited  region  of 


THE  EAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        213 

Dartmoor,  which  could  not  be  crossed  and  had  to  be 
avoided  on  one  side  or  the  other.  The  South  Western 
line,  striking  first  of  all  north-west  from  Exeter,  and 
then  due  west,  keeps  to  the  western  edge  of  the 
moor  when  at  length  it  turns  south.  No  amount  of 
engineering  skill  could  prevent  a  line  through  such 
country  from  being  an  exceptionally  difficult  one.  A 
great  deal  of  it  is  at  1  in  80,  or  a  little  worse,  and,  though 
the  rising  gradients  are  not  absolutely  continuous,  the 
line  climbs  so  steeply  that  a  summit  of  950  feet  is 
reached  near  the  great  Meldon  Viaduct,  which  spans 
the  gorge  descending  from  the  foot  of  Yes  Tor — the 
highest  point  in  the  West  Country.  From  this  summit 
there  is  a  correspondingly  steep  descent  to  Plymouth, 
which  is  not  reached  till  the  train  has  travelled  59  miles 
from  Exeter  (Queen  Street) — about  half  as  far  again  as 
if  the  line  thence  were  straight.  The  Great  Western 
line,  on  its  southerly  course,  does  not  make  quite  so 
wide  a  detour,  and  running  along  the  coast  for  the  first 
20  miles,  does  not  reach  the  hilly  country  till  after 
Newton  Abbot.  But,  owing  to  the  extreme  severity 
of  the  Great  Western  route  from  here  onward,  it  is  not 
impossible  that,  if  the  hypothetical  race  between  the 
two  lines  were  continued  from  Exeter  to  Plymouth,  the 
Great  Western's  52  miles  from  St.  David's  would  take 
nearly  as  long  as  the  South  Western's  59  from  Queen 
Street. 

The  summit  of  the  South  Western  is  not  nearly  the 
highest  point  reached  by  rail  in  Devonshire.  The 
Great  Western  possesses  a  little  branch  line  which 
strikes  boldly  out  on  to  the  moor  to  the  great  convict 
prisons  at  Princetown,  some  1400  feet  above  the  sea. 
There  can  be  few  remoter  places  reached  by  a  railway 


214        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

than  this  veritable  plague  spot,  which  disfigures  what 
would  otherwise  be  one  of  the  most  romantic  corners 
of  England.  From  its  junction  with  the  Plymouth  and 
Launceston  line,  the  curious  little  railway  winds  steeply 
up  the  slopes  bordering  Dartmoor  till,  about  mid-way, 
it  emerges  on  to  the  open  moor,  and,  by  means  of  a 
series  of  the  sharpest  possible  curves,  continues  to 
follow  the  contour  of  the  country  in  such  a  manner  that 
no  works  of  any  magnitude  are  made  necessary,  and 
then  at  last,  crossing  a  ridge,  arrives  at  its  singularly 
unattractive  destination.  Considering  the  extreme 
meagreness  of  the  traffic,  Princetown  may  think 
itself  well  treated  in  the  number  of  connections  it  has 
with  the  outside  world.  Six  or  seven  times  a  day,  in 
either  direction,  the  tank  engine,  which  works  the  line, 
may  be  seen  hauling  across  the  moor  the  solitary 
carriage,  of  which  the  train  is  usually  composed. 

There  are  not  many  countries  in  the  world  where  a 
line  of  this  kind  would  be  protected  in  the  complete 
manner  in  which  this  line  is  protected  for  the  benefit 
of  a  few  ponies,  which  pick  up  a  scanty  living  on  the 
moor.  Elaborately  fenced  from  end  to  end,  and  pro- 
vided with  over  and  under  bridges  at  intervals,  the 
Princetown  line  is  as  carefully  enclosed  as  one  of  the 
great  main  lines. 

Probably  the  most  important  step  which  the  South 
Western  ever  took  was  the  purchase,  some  20  years 
ago,  of  Southampton  Docks.  From  that  time  onward 
the  Company  has  continuously  developed  the  docks 
till,  at  the  present  time,  it  is  putting  the  finishing 
touches  to  the  last  corners  of  its  estate,  and,  for  any 
further  extensions,  will  have  to  seek  space  elsewhere. 
The  area  of  the  docks  is  roughly  a  triangle,  with  a  base 


THE  EAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        215 

to  landward  of  some  half  to  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  and 
projecting  about  a  mile  out  to  sea.  Southampton  is 
one  of  the  places  where  nature  has  been  really  kind. 
The  first  branch  of  the  tidal  wave  reaches  Southampton, 
via  one  side  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  is  followed  exactly 
2  hours  later  by  a  second  branch  round  the  other  side, 
with  the  result  that  there  are  two  successive  high  tides 
at  two-hour  intervals — practically  one  continuous  high 
tide  for  this  period.  The  range  of  the  tides  is  not  very 
great,  and  the  place,  though  land-locked  and  com- 
pletely sheltered,  is  approached  by  a  deep  water  channel. 
With  all  these  advantages  Southampton  was  a  tempting 
place  to  develop,  and  certainly  the  railway  has  stinted 
neither  money  nor  energy.  Since  the  company  took 
over  the  docks  there  has  been  a  prodigious  and  rapid 
increase  in  the  size  of  the  biggest  steamships,  but 
Southampton,  with  all  its  natural  advantages,  has  kept, 
and  is  keeping,  well  abreast  of  the  requirements  of 
these  vessels.  The  Olympic  herself  lies  easily  in  the 
new  deep-water  dock,  and  the  Trafalgar  dry  dock  has 
now  been  altered  to  take  her  in.  At  the  time  of  my 
visit  she  was  lying  comfortably  alongside  in  the  deep 
water  dock,  where  there  are  never  less  than  40  feet  of 
water — a  contrast  indeed  to  the  Majestic,  which  lay 
beside  her,  and  had  not  so  long  ago  been  one  of  the 
biggest  ships  in  the  Atlantic  trade.  The  reconstruction 
of  the  Trafalgar  Dock,  a  work  of  some  magnitude, 
included  replacing  the  original  gates,  which  opened 
outwards,  and  so  could  withstand  pressure  from  the 
outside  only,  by  a  single  sliding  gate,  which  will  with- 
stand pressure  from  either  side,  and  so  makes  it  possible 
to  have  a  higher  level  of  water  inside  the  dock  than 
there  is  in  the  sea  outside.  The  pumping  engines,  used 


216        EA1LWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

for  pumping  the  water  out  of  this  dock,  are  powerful 
enough  to  complete  their  work,  if  necessary,  within 
2  hours,  but  in  practice  the  pumps  do  not  work  at  their 
full  power,  as  it  is  more  convenient  that  the  level  of 
the  water  should  sink  gradually  to  enable  the  hulls  of 
the  ships  to  be  got  at  for  cleaning  at  leisure.  Close  by 
are  some  new  shops,  erected  by  Messrs.  Harland  & 
Wolff,  conveniently  situated  for  carrying  out  heavy 
repairs  on  the  ships  lying  in  the  docks. 

The  most  important  part  of  the  traffic  dealt  with  at 
Southampton  is  the  passenger  and  troop  traffic,  and, 
for  the  purposes  of  this  traffic,  the  trains  can  be  run 
into  the  various  sheds,  which  extend  along  the  water- 
side, and  so  get  quite  close  to  the  berths  at  which  the 
ships  lie.  These  sheds  are  supplemented  in  some  cases 
by  covered  gangways  between  shed  and  ship,  so  that 
the  passengers  are  completely  protected  from  the 
weather. 

The  greater  part  of  the  many  acres  of  covered  in 
space  is  composed  of  transit  sheds,  used  for  housing 
merchandise  provisionally,  till  such  time  as  it  can  be 
loaded  on  to  the  ships  or  into  the  trains  in  case  it  cannot 
be  transferred  direct  from  one  to  the  other. 

Southampton  is  chiefly  concerned  with  high-class 
goods — manufactured  articles  of  considerable  value — 
and  does  not  trouble  itself  much  with  such  things  as 
raw  materials  in  bulk.  There  are,  nevertheless,  large 
storage  warehouses  for  grain,  and  chilled  meat,  and 
various  other  things,  which  arrive  in  large  quantities, 
and  are  warehoused  till  opportunities  arise  for  their 
distribution.  An  important  branch  of  the  import  trade 
of  Southampton  is  the  trade  in  chilled  meat  from  the 
River  Plate,  for  which  a  private  company  has  a  large 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        217 

storage  warehouse  several  storeys  high.  The  long  rows 
of  gloomy,  windowless  chambers,  which  compose  this 
unattractive  building,  are  kept  at  freezing  point  by  an 
ammonia  process  worked  from  an  adjoining  engine- 
house. 

Important  adjuncts  of  the  docks  are  the  offices  of 
the  various  British  and  foreign  shipping  companies, 
which  run  to  Southampton,  and  also  the  South  Western 
Hotel.  The  hotel  people  speak  highly  of  the  elaborate 
pains  taken  by  the  German  agents  to  ensure  the  comfort 
of  their  passengers.  The  Germans,  it  appears,  are  so 
determined  never  to  lose  a  customer  through  want  of 
consideration  on  their  own  part,  that,  if  one  of  their 
vessels  is  late  in  arriving,  they  will  put  the  prospective 
passengers  up  at  the  hotel  free  of  charge,  while  the  pro- 
vision of  free  meals  for  half  a  boat-load  of  people  is  a 
common  occurrence.  It  is  small  wonder  that  the  Ger- 
mans succeed  in  business,  when  they  work  on  these 
lines. 

The  question  of  the  labour  supply  at  docks  is  a 
difficult  one.  The  work  is  of  a  nature  so  intermittent 
that  a  very  large  part  of  it  must  necessarily  be  per- 
formed by  casual  labour,  upon  the  disadvantages  of 
which  it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell.  But,  if  the  railway 
company  cannot  find  continuous  employment  for  the 
army  of  dockers  who  are  constantly  passing  in  and  out 
of  its  service,  there  are  various  steps  which  it  can  take 
to  secure  to  some  extent  their  well-being.  Chief  among 
these  is  the  provision  of  opportunities  for  securing 
proper  food.  The  company  has,  therefore,  built  at 
various  points  about  the  docks  dining-rooms  for  the 
use  of  the  dockers.  The  dining-rooms  are  let  out  to 
contractors,  but  the  railway  company  imposes  strict 


218        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

conditions  as  to  the  prices  that  may  be  charged,  and 
insists  upon  a  good  quality  of  provisions  being  supplied. 
There  was  certainly  no  doubt  as  to  the  popularity  of 
one  of  the  dining-rooms  which  I  entered,  nor  as  to  the 
moderation  of  the  prices — sixpence,  for  instance,  for 
hot  meat,  three  vegetables,  bread  and  coffee.  Another 
thing  that  is  done  for  the  dockers'  comfort  is  to  put 
down  a  flooring  of  wooden  blocks,  instead  of  concrete 
or  other  material,  upon  the  quays  where  the  work  is 
done,  because  the  wooden  blocks  are  much  easier  for 
the  men's  feet. 

The  51  berths  and  6  dry  docks  at  Southampton  are 
not  by  any  means  exclusively  used  by  great  ocean 
liners.  Private  yachts  from  all  parts  frequently  visit 
the  docks.  When  I  was  there  a  beautiful  yacht, 
belonging  to  an  American  millionaire,  had  just  been 
taken  into  one  of  the  smaller  dry  docks.  His  Majesty's 
ships  are  by  no  means  strangers  to  the  place,  and  here 
also  is  the  starting-point  of  the  South  Western's  cross- 
channel  service  to  Havre.  This  service,  which  runs  at 
night,  offers  in  its  own  way  great  conveniences,  which 
are  perhaps  not  so  widely  appreciated  as  they  ought  to 
be.  The  steamers  leave  either  Southampton  or  Havre 
at  midnight,  and  give  the  passenger  an  uninterrupted 
7  or  8  hours,  which,  if  he  happens  to  be  a  good  sailor, 
or  if  the  sea  happens  to  be  smooth,  offers  possibilities  of 
an  adequate  night's  rest.  Those  who  have  experienced 
the  miseries  involved  in  crossing  by  night  from  Calais 
to  Dover  will  appreciate  the  advantages  which  the 
longer  crossing  gives. 

The  South  Western  was  just  putting  a  very  interest- 
ing new  boat  into  this  service — the  Normannia.  This 
boat  was  the  first  to  be  fitted  with  geared  turbines. 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE   WEST        219 

Turbines,  unless  they  are  of  very  large  size,  must 
revolve  so  quickly  that  they  have  to  be  fitted  with  very 
small  screws.  These  screws,  having  so  small  a  surface, 
do  not  grip  the  water,  and  so  are  not  efficient  for 
manoeuvring  purposes.  In  the  Normannia,  therefore, 
while  the  high-pressure  turbines  revolve  at  2000,  and 
the  low-pressure  at  1400  revolutions  a  minute,  these 
turbines  do  not  work  direct  on  to  the  screws ;  the 
speed  of  revolution  of  the  screws  is  reduced  to  300  a 
minute  by  means  of  drums,  which  engage  with  each 
other  through  double  helical  gearing,  and  screws  of  the 
most  desirable  size  can  be  used. 

At  Eastleigh,  close  to  Southampton,  are  the  loco- 
motive, carriage  and  wagon  works  of  the  South  Western. 
At  intervals  the  different  railway  companies  either 
remodel  their  works,  or  else  move  them  to  some  com- 
pletely new  place,  where  more  space  is  available,  and 
each  time  this  is  done,  an  opportunity  occurs  for  laying 
out  the  new  or  remodelled  works  in  accordance  with 
all  the  newest  ideas.  The  South  Western  is  the  latest 
line  to  move  its  locomotive  works.  Only  quite  recently 
have  they  been  removed  from  Nine  Elms  to  Eastleigh, 
where,  however,  the  carriage  works  have  been  situated 
for  a  good  many  years.  The  company,  when  deciding 
upon  Eastleigh  as  the  new  site  for  its  works,  was 
evidently  determined  that  there  should  be  little  danger 
of  insufficiency  of  room  at  any  future  time,  and  there- 
fore became  possessed  of  a  very  considerable  area  of 
land  in  excess  of  what  it  so  far  requires.  The  designers 
of  the  new  locomotive  shops,  having  had  plenty  of  space 
at  their  disposal,  certainly  did  not  stint  themselves,  and 
quite  rose  to  the  occasion  in  providing  the  clean,  light 
and  roomy  buildings,  in  which  the  South  Western 


220        RAILWAYS  OF  GKEAT  BRITAIN 

locomotives  are  now  constructed.  In  laying  out  new 
works,  the  great  aim  must  be  so  to  arrange  the  different 
shops  that  the  materials  are  passed  on  from  one  to 
another  by  the  shortest  possible  route,  in  order  to 
simplify  organisation  and  save  labour.  At  Eastleigh, 
therefore,  the  pattern  shop  is  between  the  iron  and  the 
brass  foundries  ;  these  latter  are  conveniently  placed 
for  handing  on  their  products  to  the  respective  machine 
shops  ;  the  machine  shops  in  turn  occupy  the  end  and 
one  side  of  a  huge  shed,  of  which  the  further  side  is  the 
boiler  shop,  and  the  central  bay  the  erecting  shop.  In 
this  manner  the  erecting  shop,  where  the  finished 
locomotives  are  produced,  is  fed  in  the  most  convenient 
way  from  the  shops  all  round  it.  The  bewildering 
array  of  machines  in  the  machine  shops  is  driven  by 
electrical  power,  as  is  now  the  common  practice,  and 
the  electricity  required  is  produced  in  a  power-house 
adjoining  these  shops.  As  the  present  works  are  likely 
to  be  considerably  extended  and  developed  from  time 
to  time,  the  power-house  has  been  made  with  plenty 
of  spare  room  for  increasing  the  size  of  the  installation 
as  time  goes  on.  When  the  Eastleigh  works  were 
being  laid  out,  the  opportunity  was  taken  of  acquiring 
several  machine  tools  of  great  power  and  capacity. 
The  feats,  indeed,  which  machine  tools  perform,  grow 
constantly  greater  ;  it  seems  to  be  only  a  question 
of  money  to  make  a  tool  of  almost  any  capacity. 
In  one  place  there  is  a  machine  that  will  plane 
ten  or  a  dozen  axle-boxes  at  a  time,  and,  close  by, 
another  that  will  drill  24  holes  simultaneously  in  a 
fire-box. 

A  boiler  shop  is  never  a  pleasant  place  for  any  one 
who  is  not  by  long  habit  accustomed  to  the  noise,  but 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        221 

the  general  use  of  hydraulic  rivetting  machines  for 
closing  all  the  rivets,  which  these  machines  can  reach, 
certainly  tends  to  create  a  calmer  atmosphere.  In  the 
boiler  shop  at  Eastleigh  may  be  seen  several  of  the 
specialities  of  the  South  Western.  Chief  among  these 
is  the  system  of  fitting  water  tubes  across  the  fire-box. 
A  large  number  of  these  tubes  are  arranged  across  the 
fire-box,  with  one  end  some  inches  higher  than  the 
other  ;  this  produces  an  intense  circulation  of  water 
through  the  tubes  and  in  the  water  spaces  of  the  fire- 
box, while  at  the  same  time  the  tubes  about  double  the 
fire-box  heating  surface.  A  further  and  most  im- 
portant advantage  is  that  the  water  tubes  form  a 
barrier  across  the  fire-box,  against  which  strike  the 
small  pieces  of  incandescent  fuel  lifted  from  the  fire  by 
the  draught,  which  are  thus  prevented  from  being 
sucked  through  the  tubes  and  thrown  up  the  chimney 
as  sparks.  Another  object  of  interest  is  the  super- 
heater, which  the  South  Western  is  adopting.  It 
consists  of  a  chamber  traversed  by  a  number  of  short 
tubes,  each  of  which  is  concentric  with  one  of  the 
boiler  flues.  One  of  these  chambers  is  fixed  on  either 
branch  of  the  steam  pipe  in  the  smoke-box,  and  the 
steam  passes  through  it  on  its  way  to  the  cylinders, 
and,  in  doing  so,  is  heated  up  by  the  hot  smoke-box 
gases.  These  gases,  having  already  passed  through 
the  fire  tubes  of  the  boiler  in  the  ordinary  way,  though 
still  very  hot,  are  not  nearly  so  hot  as  is  arranged  for 
with  most  forms  of  superheater,  nor  is  the  heating 
surface  of  the  steam  chambers  so  great  as  the  heating 
surface  of  most  .superheaters,  so  the  effect  produced 
upon  the  steam  is  much  less.  Indeed,  what  is  sought 
is  little  more  than  to  dry  the  steam  thoroughly  before 


222        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

it  reaches  the  cylinders,  and  the  advantages  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  difficulties  on  the  other  of  working  with 
highly  superheated  steam  do  not  come  in.  The 
economy  achieved,  however,  has  shown  itself  in  practice 
to  be  very  considerable. 

The  construction  of  the  tenders  fitted  with  the  feed- 
water  heating  apparatus,  can  also  be  studied  in  the 
boiler  shop.  These  tenders  have  a  well,  which  is 
traversed  by  a  number  of  pipes,  through  which  part  of 
the  exhaust  steam  is  turned.  Water  from  the  main 
tank  above  can  enter  the  well  only  through  a  hole  near 
the  end  remote  from  the  engine,  so  the  water,  before  it 
enters  the  pipe  at  the  front  end  of  the  tender,  which 
leads  it  to  the  pump,  is  thoroughly  heated  up.  The 
engines  with  tenders  of  this  design  have  no  injectors, 
but  their  boilers  are  fed  by  pumps,  which  are  worked 
independently  of  the  main  cylinders  of  the  engine  ;  so 
they,  like  injectors,  can  be  used  whether  the  engine  is 
standing  or  running. 

Rather  an  interesting  speciality  of  the  South 
Western  is  the  method  of  constructing  the  crank-axles 
of  the  locomotives.  Until  fairly  recent  times  crank- 
axles  were  made  all  in  one  piece  out  of  a  large  forging. 
The  more  modern  practice  is  to  use  axles  which  are 
built  up  out  of  a  number  of  separate  pieces,  all  of  which 
are  of  quite  simple  shape,  and  are  easy  to  machine. 
The  pieces  which  form  the  webs  of  the  cranks  are  made 
with  holes,  which,  at  normal  temperatures,  are  just  too 
small  to  receive  the  horizontal  pieces.  To  fix  the 
different  pieces  together  the  webs  are  heated  till  the 
holes  in  them  have  increased  in  size  enough  to  allow  the 
horizontal  pieces  to  be  inserted,  and  when  the  webs 
have  subsequently  cooled,  they  hold  the  horizontal 


THE  EAILWAYS  TO  THE   WEST        223 

pieces  in  a  firm  grip,  which  is  made  firmer  still  by  the 
insertion  of  rectangular  steel  keys  into  key-ways  cut 
half  in  each  of  the  two  pieces  which  are  to  be  con- 
solidated. The  South  Western  has  introduced  a  re- 
finement into  the  construction  of  the  crank  web.  The 
balance  weights  necessary  to  make  an  engine  run 
smoothly  are  generally  put  into  the  rims  of  the  driving 
and  coupled  wheels.  In  the  latest  South  Western 
engines,  however,  the  disturbances,  which  originate  in 
the  interior  mechanism  of  the  engine,  are  balanced  by 
large  bosses,  which  are  formed  by  extensions  of  the 
crank  webs.  The  disturbances  are  thus  balanced  in 
very  nearly  the  same  plane  as  that  in  which  they  arise. 
In  the  erecting  shop  I  was  lucky  to  find  that  the 
first  of  a  new  batch  of  4-4-0  engines  had  just  been 
put  upon  her  wheels,  and,  though  unpainted  and  un- 
finished in  many  ways,  had  reached  a  stage  of  con- 
struction quite  sufficiently  advanced  to  enable  it  to  be 
seen  how  very  handsome  a  machine  she  is.  The  bold 
outline  of  the  late  Mr.  Drummond's  4-4-0  engines  * 
and  the  great  simplicity  of  their  design  can  never  fail 
to  strike  anyone  except  persons,  if  there  be  any  such, 
who  fail  to  perceive  beauty  or  romance  in  any  kind  of 
machinery.  Besides  the  water-tube  fire-box,  the  super- 
heater and  other  South  Western  specialities,  it  is  not 

*  Owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Drummond,  the  late  chief 
mechanical  engineer  of  the  South  Western,  had  previously  occupied  the 
positions  of  locomotive  superintendent  on  the  North  British  and  Cale- 
donian successively,  many  of  the  South  Western  engines  much  resemble 
the  engines  of  the  Scottish  companies,  and  particularly  is  this  the  case 
with  the  4-4-0  express  types.  In  spite  of  the  existence  of  bigger  engines 
with  10  wheels,  these  very  handsome  and  workmanlike  machines  are 
the  standard  express  type  of  all  three  companies,  and  as  the  gradients 
of  the  main  lines  of  these  companies  are  the  most  difficult  in  Great  Britain, 
they  do  between  them  a  very  large  amount  of  hill  climbing, 


224        RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

difficult  to  find  further  points  of  interest  in  the  design 
of  this  engine.  In  2-cylinder  designs  the  nearer  together 
the  cylinders  can  be  put,  the  more  smoothly  does  an 
engine  run,  so  in  this  machine  the  Walschaerts'  valve- 
gear  has  been  adopted,  which,  requiring,  as  it  does,  only 
2  eccentrics  between  the  cranks,  instead  of  the  usual 
four,  allows  the  cylinders  to  be  brought  as  close  together 
as  they  will  go.  The  slide  bars  are  of  Mr.  Drummond's 
special  design,  which — instead  of,  as  is  usually  the  case, 
being  supported  at  either  end,  while  the  middle  (where 
the  principal  stress  comes)  has  no  direct  support — are 
supported  in  the  middle,  just  where  strength  is  required. 
These  slide  bars  and  an  unusually  large  number  of  other 
parts  of  the  engine  are  made  of  cast-iron,  which  is  cheap, 
and,  as  a  rubbing  surface,  works  with  very  little 
friction.  Then,  there  are  the  piston  valves,  10  inches 
in  diameter,  which  provide  the  freest  possible  exhaust, 
and  the  coupling  rods,  10  feet  long,  the  extreme 
length  ever  attained  in  these  parts  of  an  engine,  not  to 
speak  of  other  minor,  but  none  the  less  interesting, 
details. 

But  at  places  like  the  Eastleigh  locomotive  shops 
there  is  so  much  to  see  that,  in  order  to  get  in  a  visit  to 
the  carriage  and  wagon  shops,  it  is  necessary  to  hurry 
on,  while  a  great  deal  that  is  of  interest  remains  still 
unexplored.  The  carriages  and  wagons  are  built  in 
the  older  part  of  the  establishment,  which  is  situated  on 
the  other  side  of  the  branch  line  to  Portsmouth.  The 
remarkable  advance  which  has  been  made  in  the  use  of 
bogies  for  passenger  stock,  is  nowhere  better  seen  than 
here,  where  all  new  passenger  stock  is  built  to  run  on 
2  four-wheel  bogies  of  standard  design.  The  much 
greater  smoothness  of  motion  of  carriages  supported  on 


THE  EAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST         225 

bogies  than  of  those  with  4  or  6  wheels  is  readily  under- 
stood when  the  mechanism  of  the  bogie  is  laid  open. 
Besides  the  swivelling  arrangements,  an  appliance 
known  as  a  bolster  is  suspended  from  the  bogie  across 
the  middle  of  the  frame,  with  liberty  to  move  a  little 
from  side  to  side.  The  bolster  is  a  kind  of  oblong  box 
containing  springs  which  give  a  certain  amount  of 
elasticity  between  the  bottom  and  the  cover  of  the  box, 
and  it  is  upon  the  cover  of  the  box  that  the  weight  of 
the  carriage  rests,  and  to  it  that  the  bogie  pin  is  secured. 
The  bogie  being  attached  to  the  carriage  it  supports  by 
the  central  pin  only,  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  complete 
the  attachment,  and  the  bogie  can  be  erected  complete, 
before  it  need  be  brought  to  the  carriage  to  be  secured 
to  it.  To  avoid  the  necessity  of  lifting  the  carriage  to 
receive  the  bogie,  a  very  neat  arrangement  is  in  use. 
While  the  carriage  is  standing  upon  supports  above  one 
line  of  rails,  a  complete  bogie  is  wheeled  up  upon  the 
adjoining  line  onto  a  table  worked  by  hydraulic  power. 
The  table,  with  the  bogie  on  it,  is  then  lowered  into  a 
pit,  run  sideways  under  the  flooring  until  it  is  under- 
neath the  carriage,  and  then  raised  into  position  and 
secured. 

The  question  of  heating  the  carriages  in  cold  weather 
is  almost  as  difficult  to  solve  as  that  of  lighting  them 
at  night.  In  really  cold  countries  it  is  generally  found 
necessary  to  have  a  self-contained  heating  apparatus 
in  each  carriage  ;  but  in  England,  where  the  winters 
are  comparatively  mild,  the  carriages  (where  foot- 
warmers  are  not  in  use)  are  usually  heated  by  steam 
from  the  locomotive.  This  steam  is  led  along  a  pipe 
running  the  whole  length  of  the  train,  with  branches  in 
each  compartment  through  which  the  flow  of  steam 

Q 


226        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

may  be  regulated.  In  some  cases  the  heat  is  retained 
by  means  of  reservoirs  filled  with  some  heat-retaining 
chemical,  through  which  the  steam  is  made  to  pass. 
A  drawback  of  an  apparatus  which  depends  for  its 
heat  on  the  locomotive  is  that,  if  the  driver  finds  that 
he  has  no  steam  to  spare,  he  is  not  unlikely  to  restrict 
or  entirely  cut  off  the  supply. 

The  machine  shops  in  the  carriage  and  wagon  works 
are  not  less  remarkable  than  those  in  the  locomotive 
works.  The  sight  of  a  machine  making  a  screw  com- 
plete in  every  detail,  with  hardly  any  supervision  from 
the  workman  in  charge,  and  of  others  performing  not 
less  curious  feats,  must  always  fascinate  the  non- 
expert. A  good  many  things,  some  of  more  or  less 
complicated  shape,  are  now  made  simply  and  expedi- 
tiously  by  means  of  dies  ;  the  white-hot  metal  is  put 
between  the  dies,  hydraulic  pressure  is  applied,  and, 
when  the  rough  edgings,  where  the  metal  has  not 
entered  the  die,  have  been  knocked  off,  the  whole 
operation  of  manufacture  is  over.  To  do  the  same 
work  by  any  other  means  would  often  be  a  long  and 
difficult  business.  Things  of  shapes  so  irregular  as 
drawhooks  are  satisfactorily  produced  by  this  means. 

After  the  metal  working  shops,  the  saw-mill  and 
paint  shops  are  entered  with  a  sense  almost  of  relief. 
Metal  working  of  any  kind  wants  so  much  force  that 
the  men  or  the  machines  therein  engaged  always  seem 
to  be  occupied  in  a  stern  and  relentless  struggle  with  a 
stubborn  foe  ;  very  different  is  the  impression  created 
by  the  cheerful  sound  of  the  circular  saw,  as  it  buzzes 
through  timber,  or  by  the  quietness  and  the  clean  smell 
of  the  paint  shop.  As  I  passed  through  this  latter  I 
asked  a  question  which  has  always  puzzled  me — 


THE  EAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        227 

'  What  are  the  colours  which  the  South  Western 
carriages  are  painted  ?  ?:  —and  was  somewhat  amused 
to  find  that  the  South  Western  people  themselves  are 
unable  to  state  what  they  are. 

For  the  satisfactory  working  of  a  railway  it  is 
necessary  to  have  efficient  means  of  controlling  the 
trains  besides  engines  of  sufficient  power  and  suitable 
design  for  hauling  them.  The  two  principal  factors 
in  this  control  are  the  signals  and  the  brakes. 

The  theory  on  which  railway  traffic  is  generally 
conducted  is  that  every  line  is  divided  up  into  a  number 
of  lengths,  upon  each  of  which  there  is  never  more  than 
one  train  at  a  time.  This  constitutes  the  so-called 
"  block  system."  Each  length  is  under  the  control  of 
a  signalman,  who  permits  no  train  to  enter  it,  unless  it 
is  unoccupied,  and  each  signalman  is  in  constant  com- 
munication, by  means  of  electrical  instruments,  with 
the  signalman,  who  controls  the  length  of  line  on  either 
side  of  the  length  which  he  himself  controls.  There  is 
thus  a  complete  chain  of  control  from  end  to  end  of  the 
line.  A  train  cannot  start  from  the  terminus  till  the 
signalman  in  charge  of  the  starting  signal  has  been 
informed  by  his  colleague  in  the  next  box  down  the 
line  that  the  previous  train  to  leave  the  terminus  has 
passed  beyond  that  box,  and  the  colleague  in  turn  will 
not  allow  the  train  to  proceed  into  the  section,  at  the 
entrance  of  which  he  is  stationed,  till  he  has  received 
similar  information  from  the  signal-box  next  beyond 
his  own.  So,  at  the  beginning  of  every  length,  into 
which  the  line  is  divided,  there  is  placed  a  signal,  which 
can  assume  a  horizontal  or  a  slanting  position  instruct- 
ing the  engine  driver  respectively  to  stop  or  to  pro- 
ceed ;  and  this  signal  is  moved  by  the  signalman  in 


228        RAILWAYS  OF  GEBAT  BRITAIN 

charge,  in  accordance  with  the  information  which  he 
receives  from  up  and  down  the  line. 

This  is  the  general  scheme  for  the  control  of  the 
trains.  In  practice  the  arrangements  are  somewhat 
more  complicated.  In  order  to  give  the  drivers 
adequate  notice  of  the  position  in  which  they  may 
expect  to  find  the  stop  signal — which  is  known  as  the 
"  home  "  signal — another  signal,  known  as  the  "  dis- 
tant" signal,  is  placed  some  half-mile  away  from  it, 
and  this  signal  is  never  lowered  unless  the  home  signal 
is  lowered  also.  A  driver,  therefore,  who  finds  the 
distant  signal  in  a  position  which  allows  him  to  proceed 
may  go  ahead  with  full  confidence.  If  the  distant 
signal  is  at  danger  he  passes  it,  but  prepares  to  pull  up, 
if  necessary,  at  the  home  signal.  At  stations  and 
various  other  places  there  may  be  one  or  two  more  stop 
signals  at  intervals  beyond  the  home  signal — known  as 
the  "  starting  "  and  "  advanced  starting  "  signals.  In 
this  case  the  distant  signal  is  not  lowered  unless  all 
these  stop  signals  are  lowered  also.  On  any  section  of 
the  line  where  they  exist  it  is  of  course  possible  to  pro- 
tect one  train  with  each  of  them,  and  so  more  than  one 
train  at  a  time  may  be  admitted  to  that  section.  On 
a  double  line,  where  all  the  trains  run  in  the  same 
direction,  and  there  are  no  points  or  crossings,  and  the 
only  danger  that  has  to  be  guarded  against  is  that  of  one 
train  catching  up  another,  it  is  quite  a  simple  matter 
to  keep  the  distance  between  them,  but  where  there  are 
points,  and  it  is  necessary  to  prevent  the  trains  from 
meeting  one  another,  the  arrangements  necessary  to 
ensure  safety  become  more  complex.  The  signals  and 
points  are  then  connected  together  in  such  a  way  that 
no  signal  can  be  lowered  to  allow  a  train  to  proceed 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO   THE  WEST        229 

until  all  the  corresponding  points  have  been  correctly 
set  for  its  passage,  and  those  on  neighbouring  lines  so 
set  that  no  vehicle  can  be  turned  from  them  on  to  the 
line  over  which  the  train  is  to  pass. 

For  the  proper  working  of  the  block  system  reliance 
may  be  placed  either  upon  the  combinations  of  the  brains 
of  the  pairs  of  signalmen,  whose  consent  is  necessary 
before  any  signal  may  be  lowered,  or  the  safeguard  thus 
provided  may  be  supplemented  by  a  mechanical  device 
which  makes  it  impossible  for  any  signal  to  be  lowered 
for  a  fresh  train  to  proceed  until  the  last  train,  which 
has  passed  that  signal,  has  got  under  the  protection  of 
the  next  signal  further  on.  The  apparently  greater 
protection  conferred  by  the  latter  arrangement  is 
reduced  by  its  being  necessary  to  provide  means 
whereby  the  apparatus  worked  by  the  train  itself  may 
be  put  out  of  gear  if  it  goes  wrong  and  the  signal  gets 
stuck  at  "  danger."  Instances  have  been  known  of 
the  signalman's  forgetting  that  a  train  has  passed  and 
locked  the  signal  at  "  danger,"  and,  when  in  point  of 
fact  the  signal  was  working  properly,  supposing  that 
it  had  got  stuck,  and  releasing  it  with  the  emergency 
key.  Irregularities,  however,  are  so  very  rare  in  either 
system  of  block  working  that  both  systems  must  be 
considered  quite  satisfactory  in  practice.  Less  perfect, 
as  several  recent  accidents  have  shown,  are  the  safe- 
guards at  stations,  where  one  signalman  sometimes 
has  it  in  his  power  to  admit  by  mistake  more  than  one 
train  at  a  time  into  a  section. 

The  British  system  of  signalling  is  probably  the 
simplest  and  most  complete  of  any  now  employed. 
Practically  all  the  signalling  on  the  running  lines  is 
done  by  means  of  only  two  patterns  of  signal — both 


230        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

semaphores — and  the  only  difference  between  them  is 
that  the  stop  signals  have  square  ends  and  the  warning 
signals  have  fish-tail  ends.  The  considerable  variety 
of  forms  of  signal  found  on  some  Continental  railways 
is  absent,  and  the  indications  are  to  that  extent  less 
confusing. 

In  most  cases  the  signals  are  moved  by  human 
agency,  but  it  is  also  possible  to  make  use  of  various 
systems,  whereby  the  movements  are  brought  about 
by  the  trains  themselves,  and  no  signalmen  are  required. 
This  is  effected  by  means  of  electric  currents,  which  pass 
along  sections  of  the  rails,  and  are  short-circuited  by 
passing  trains.  For  this  purpose  the  different  sections 
are  divided  from  one  another  at  the  required  intervals, 
by  insulated  rail  joints.  Arrangements  of  this  kind 
are  quite  suitable  for  those  parts  of  the  line  which  pass 
through  open  country,  but  at  junctions  and  big  stations 
it  is  of  course  impossible  to  dispense  with  signalmen. 
But  here  also  much  may  be  done,  by  the  interposition 
of  electric  or  pneumatic  power,  to  lighten  the  signal- 
men's work,  and  so  reduce  the  number  of  men  whom 
it  is  necessary  to  employ.  With  ordinary  mechanical 
transmissions  the  exertion  of  pulling  over  a  lever  in  the 
signal  box  is  considerable,  and  in  large  boxes,  where  a 
great  many  movements  are  made  in  a  short  time,  a 
man's  powers  are  limited  by  the  actual  physical  exertion 
entailed  upon  him.  Where  electric  or  pneumatic  power 
is  used  for  doing  the  work  of  moving  the  points 
and  signals,  the  little  levers  which  set  the  power  to 
work,  can  easily  be  moved  with  one  finger,  and  any 
reasonable  number  can  be  arranged  so  close  together 
that  the  signalman  in  charge  need  hardly  move  from 
his  seat.  His  work  then  becomes  more  analogous  to 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        231 

working  a  typewriter,  and  the  hard  bodily  exertion  of 
an  ordinary  signal  cabin  is  absent. 

On  some  parts  of  the  South  Western  main  line  the 
low-pressure  pneumatic  system  of  working  points  and 
signals  is  in  use.  In  the  open  country,  where  there  are 
no  points  or  crossings,  the  signals  are  entirely  self-acting. 
They  are  normally  held  in  the  "  line  clear  "  position  by 
compressed  air  from  a  main  running  alongside  the 
line  ;  when  no  train  is  in  the  section  protected,  the 
compressed  air  is  admitted  under  a  diaphragm,  by  the 
agency  of  an  electric  current.  This  current,  under 
these  circumstances,  passes  along  the  rails  and  com- 
pletes the  circuit  in  such  a  manner  that  a  valve  ad- 
mitting compressed  air  under  the  diaphragm  is  held 
open.  When  a  train  enters  the  section,  the  current  is 
short-circuited  through  the  wheels  and  axles  of  the 
carriages,  and  no  longer  serves  to  hold  the  valve  open. 
This  has  the  effect  of  exhausting  the  air  under  the 
diaphragm,  and  the  signal  goes  to  "  danger "  by 
gravity. 

Where  there  are  points  as  well  as  signals  to  be 
worked,  the  power  is  supplied  by  compressed  air,  but 
it  is  set  in  motion  by  a  signalman's  pulling  over  levers 
very  much  in  the  ordinary  way,  though  of  course  with 
much  less  effort.  The  levers  in  the  signal-box  can,  in 
the  first  place,  be  shifted  by  the  signalman  for  only  a 
part  of  their  full  stroke  ;  this  partial  movement  admits 
compressed  air  at  a  very  low  pressure — about  7  Ibs. 
per  square  inch — into  a  pipe,  along  which  this  com- 
pressed air  reaches  a  val^e  situated  close  to  the  signal 
or  points  to  be  moved.  The  valve  then  opens  a  passage 
for  another  supply  of  compressed  air — at  about  15  Ibs. 
a  square  inch  this  time— to  enter  the  cylinder  which 


232        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

works  the  points  or  signal.  When  the  movement  is 
complete  this  fact  is  notified  to  the  signalman  by  the 
compressed  air,  which  has  brought  it  about,  returning 
along  a  pipe  of  its  own  to  the  signal-box  and  completing 
the  movement  of  the  lever.*  Only  then  can  move- 
ments be  effected  of  other  levers,  which  are  interlocked 
with  the  first  lever.  The  levers  and  interlocking 
arrangements  occupy  quite  a  small  space,  and  are 
therefore  more  convenient  than  the  ordinary  arrange- 
ment, and  the  point  rods  and  signal  wires  are  replaced 
by  iron  pipes,  along  which  the  compressed  air  passes  ; 
a  number  of  moving  parts  are  thus  done  away  with. 
These  are  some  advantages  to  set  against  the  rather 
large  number  and  intricacy  of  the  pipes.  But  the 
greatest  advantage  of  the  arrangement  is  undoubtedly 
the  relief  from  physical  exertion  which  it  affords  the 
signalman,  with  the  result  that  this  relief  to  his  body 
can  hardly  fail  to  increase  the  alertness  of  his  mind. 
The  amount  of  relief  is  realised  when,  at  a  place  like 
Clapham  Junction,  one  sees  the  points  set,  with  prac- 
tically no  exertion  at  all,  for  a  cross-over  road  over 
some  half-dozen  other  lines. 

Ordinary  visual  signals  leave  very  little  to  be 
desired  in  broad  daylight ;  they  are  slightly  less  perfect 
at  night,  when  colour,  and  not  shape  has  to  be  depended 
on  f  ;  but  when,  owing  to  fog  or  falling  snow,  neither 
shape  nor  colour  can  be  distinguished,  some  method 
other  than  the  ordinary  has  to  be  employed.  The  only 

*  It  is  not  considered  necessary  to  arrange  for  this  indication  to  be 
given  when  the  signal  goes  to  "  line  clear."  It  is  given  to  indicate  that 
the  signal  has  gone  to  "  danger  "  or  that  the  points  have  moved,  and  are 
securely  fastened  either  way. 

f  Possibly  something  may  be  done  by  means  of  flashlight  signals  to 
differentiate  signals  by  night. 


THE  KAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        233 

one  that  has  so  far  been  brought  into  habitual  use  is 
the  system  of  signalling  by  means  of  detonators.  When 
a  fog  comes  on  men  are  stationed  by  the  signal  posts  to 
watch  the  indications  of  the  signal  and  warn  the  drivers 
if  it  is  against  them  by  placing  on  the  rail  detonators, 
which  explode  with  a  loud  report  when  the  engine  passes 
over  them.  If  rather  rough  and  ready,  this  is  a  fairly 
effective  method  of  control,  and,  though  trains  are 
frequently  delayed  when  there  is  a  fog,  accidents  are 
very  rare.  But  there  are  great  inconveniences  con- 
nected with  fog-signalling  in  this  manner.  Elaborate 
precautions  have  to  be  taken  that  there  shall  always  be 
a  sufficient  staff  of  men  available  at  short  notice,  and, 
when  every  care  has  been  taken,  the  fog  may  come  on 
so  rapidly  and  unexpectedly  that  some  time  elapses 
before  they  can  reach  their  posts.  Then,  standing  out 
for  hours  in  the  fog  is  neither  a  healthy  nor  a  pleasant 
occupation  for  the  men,  while  the  companies  are  put 
to  considerable  expense.  Fogs  are  fortunately  not 
common  enough  to  make  it  worth  while  making  very 
elaborate  arrangements  for  coping  with  them.  The 
most  effective  way  of  signalling  in  a  fog  is  certainly  by 
arranging  that  the  position  of  each  signal  shall  be 
repeated  to  the  driver,  as  he  approaches  it,  either  by 
audible  signals  in  the  cab  of  the  engine  or  by  an  indicator 
before  his  eyes.  Owing  to  the  expense  of  the  necessary 
mechanism  and  the  general  sufficiency  of  the  existing 
system  of  signalling,  only  a  few  isolated  experiments 
have  been  made  with  appliances  of  this  kind,  though 
in  some  parts  of  the  world  the  driver  is  warned,  if  he 
passes  a  distant  signal  at  "  danger  "  by  the  sounding 
of  an  alarm  whistle  in  the  cab. 

The  Great  Western  has,  however,  gone  further  than 


23d        EA1LWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

this,  and  for  some  years  now  has  been  experimenting 
with  a  system,  whereby  there  are  given  to  the  driver 
in  the  cab  audible  and  visible  indications  of  the  position 
of  the  distant  signals,  and  on  the  short  Fairford  branch 
line  the  distant  signals  have  been  done  away  with 
altogether,  and  replaced  by  the  cab-signalling  apparatus. 
This  apparatus  consists  of  a  box  fixed  to  the  side  of  the 
cab  containing  a  whistle  blown  by  steam,  an  electric 
bell  and  a  window,  in  which  is  displayed  either  a  blank 
surface,  or  the  word  "  danger."  It  is  a  comparatively 
easy  matter  to  arrange  that,  if  the  signal  is  at "  danger," 
a  warning  should  be  given  to  the  driver,  but  it  is  not 
sufficient  if  the  signal  is  at  "  line  clear  "  that  no  indica- 
tion should  be  given — some  definite  indication  must  be 
given  also  when  this  is  the  case.  In  the  Great  Western 
apparatus,  if  a  distant  signal  is  at  "  danger,"  the 
whistle  is  blown  and  the  word  "  danger  "  is  at  the  same 
time  displayed,  while  if  the  signal  is  at  "  line  clear  "  the 
bell  rings  ;  and,  in  each  case,  the  indications  continue 
till  the  driver  himself  stops  them.  The  indications  are 
given  from  a  ramp  laid  between  the  rails,  which,  as  the 
engine  passes  over  it,  is  struck  by  a  shoe  fixed  under 
the  engine.  So  long  as  the  "  danger  "  indication  has 
to  be  given,  an  electric  circuit  on  the  engine  is  inter- 
rupted when  the  shoe  strikes  the  ramp,  and  this  inter- 
ruption sets  the  whistle  blowing  and  causes  the  word 
"  danger  "  to  be  displayed.  When,  however,  the  "  line 
clear  "  indication  has  to  be  given,  an  electric  current  is 
passed  through  the  ramp,  the  effect  of  which,  as  the 
shoe  strikes  the  ramp,  is  to  neutralise  the  interruption 
of  the  circuit  on  the  engine  and  furthermore  to  set  the 
bell  ringing. 

It  is  possible  to  carry  the  matter  a  step  further,  and 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE  WEST        235 

cause  the  brake  to  be  applied  automatically  if  a  signal 
is  passed  at  "  danger,"  but  there  are  objections  to  this 
course.  To  apply  the  brake  with  the  proper  strength, 
according  to  the  speed  of  the  train,  is,  for  one  thing,  a 
matter  of  fine  judgment,  which  an  automatic  machine 
would  certainly  not  be  capable  of  exercising.  A  train 
travelling  at  high  speed  wants  a  considerable  space  to 
stop  in,  and,  as  it  must  be  stopped  before  it  reaches  the 
home  signal,  the  ramp  which  applied  the  brake  would 
have  to  be  situated  far  enough  from  the  home  signal  to 
stop  the  fastest  train  before  it  got  there,  and  this  would, 
therefore,  involve  a  violent  application  of  the  brake  on 
slower  trains  long  before  it  was  necessary  to  put  the 
brake  on  at  all. 

At  some  signal-boxes  where  rail  circuits  are  in  use 
there  are  plans  of  the  lines  controlled,  on  which  the 
actual  position  of  each  train  at  any  moment  is  shown 
by  means  of  discs,  which  can  turn  red  or  white.  If  a 
train  is  on  any  particular  rail-circuit,  the  discs  corre- 
sponding to  the  beginning  and  end  of  this  circuit  are 
red — otherwise  they  are  white.  This  device  is  very 
useful  for  locating  trains  in  foggy  weather. 

The  British  signalling  system,  worked,  as  it  is,  by 
highly  trained  men,  offers  a  high  degree  of  security,  and 
it  is  seldom  indeed  that,  through  any  fault  of  the  engine 
men,  the  indications  of  the  signals  are  not  given  effect 
to.  For  ensuring  the  trustworthiness  and  experience  of 
the  drivers  and  firemen  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine 
a  more  thorough  training  than  these  men  are  obliged 
to  undergo  before  the  lives  of  the  passengers  are  given 
over  into  their  keeping.  As  a  rule,  they  enter  the 
service  of  the  railway  company  as  boys,  and  spend  some 
years  in  the  running  sheds,  cleaning  the  engines  which 


236        KAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

come  in  dirty  from  their  work.  This  makes  them 
familiar  with  every  part  of  the  engine,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  they  have  opportunities  of  observing  the  fitters 
and  boiler-makers  carrying  out  any  repairs  which  may 
be  necessary,  and  they  are  brought  into  close  contact 
with  the  drivers  and  firemen  actually  in  charge  of  the 
engines,  from  whose  experience  they  are  able  to  some 
extent  to  profit.  After  some  years  the  cleaners  are 
promoted,  as  vacancies  occur,  to  be  firemen,  first  on 
shunting  engines,  and  then,  progressively,  on  engines 
engaged  on  more  and  more  important  work,  till 
eventually  they  attain  to  the  express  passenger  engines. 
All  this  time  they  are  gradually  getting  better  and 
better  acquainted  with  the  lines,  over  which  they  will 
have  to  work  as  drivers,  so  that,  when  they  are  eventu- 
ally promoted  to  that  rank,  many  years'  experience  of 
travelling  over  the  railway  has  fixed  in  their  minds  the 
position  of  every  signal  and  every  other  detail  which 
they  must  know  so  as  to  work  their  engines  with  safety 
and  efficiency.  Besides  this,  they  are  from  time  to 
time  examined  by  a  doctor  to  ensure  that  their  health 
is  good,  and  their  eyesight  and  hearing  are  also  care- 
fully tested  at  intervals.  The  eyesight  test  generally 
consists  of  counting,  with  either  eye,  varying  numbers  of 
black  dots  a  fifth  of  an  inch  square  on  a  white  ground, 
which  are  displayed  at  a  distance  of  15  feet,  and  there 
are  further  tests  for  ensuring  that  the  men  possess  good 
colour  vision. 

On  single  lines  the  problem  of  ensuring  the  safety 
of  the  trains  is  in  some  ways  different  from  the  problem 
which  presents  itself  where  the  line  is  double.  Measures 
must  be  taken  not  only  for  preventing  one  train  from 
catching  up  another,  but  for  preventing  trains,  which 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO  THE   WEST        237 

are  travelling  in  opposite  directions,  from  meeting. 
The  simplest  means  of  attaining  this  result  is  to  allow 
only  one  engine  at  a  time  to  be  upon  any  given  line, 
and  in  the  case  of  very  small  branch  lines  it  is  sometimes 
possible  to  arrange  that  this  shall  be  the  case.  But 
when  one  engine  does  not  suffice,  arrangements  have  to 
be  made  for  the  same  principle  to  be  extended  in  such 
a  way  that  the  line  is  divided  up  into  a  number  of 
sections,  upon  each  of  which  only  one  train  can  be  at 
the  same  time,  whether  it  is  travelling  in  one  direction 
or  the  other.  This  can  obviously  be  brought  about  by 
not  allowing  any  engine  to  enter  any  particular  section, 
unless  the  driver  is  in  possession  of  some  token,  generally 
a  staff  or  tablet,  of  which  only  one  exists.  And  this  is 
the  principle  that  is  adopted.  As,  however,  it  is  some- 
times necessary  to  despatch  more  than  one  train  in  the 
same  direction  successively,  a  single  token  is  not 
sufficient,  so,  while  maintaining  the  principle,  certain 
modifications  have  to  be  made  in  practice.  The 
difficulty  is  met  in  various  ways.  One  solution  of  the 
problem  has  been  evolved,  which  is  very  complete.  A 
considerable  number  of  tokens  are  provided,  the 
possession  of  any  one  of  which  gives  a  driver  the  right 
to  proceed  on  to  the  section  to  which  it  has  reference. 
There  are,  at  the  stations  at  each  end  of  the  sections, 
holders,  to  either  of  which  any  number  of  the  tokens 
can  be  secured,  and  these  holders  are  connected  together 
electrically,  in  such  a  way  that  no  token  can  be  removed 
from  either  end,  unless  the  whole  of  the  tokens  are  at 
that  moment  in  one  or  other  of  the  holders,  and  only 
one  token  can  be  removed  at  a  time  ;  no  fresh  token, 
therefore,  can  be  removed  from  either  end  till  the  one 
which  is  out  has  been  returned  to  one  holder  or  the  other. 


238        KAILWAYS  OF  GKEAT  BRITAIN 

When  a  train  passes  the  end  of  a  single  line  section 
without  stopping,  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  difficulty 
in  dropping  the  token  which  gives  the  right  to  pass  over 
the  section  just  traversed,  and  picking  up  another  for 
the  section  ahead.  Tablets  attached  to  iron  loops  are 
sometimes  used,  and  the  firemen  and  porters  become 
so  expert  at  passing  their  arms  through  the  loops  and 
catching  the  tablets  upon  the  shoulder  while  the  train 
is  travelling  at  something  like  40  miles  an  hour,  that 
very  little  time  is  lost  in  slowing  down.  A  more  perfect 
apparatus  is  used  in  some  places,  for  which  the  tablets 
to  be  exchanged  are  enclosed  in  leather  pouches,  wThich 
are  hung  to  the  engine,  and  to  a  standard  close  beside 
the  line,  and  one  tablet  is  dropped  and  another  picked 
up  simultaneously,  by  means  of  appropriate  catches, 
without  any  reduction  of  speed. 

The  signals  are  the  means  of  conveying  instructions 
to  the  driver,  but  when  he  has  his  instructions  he  must 
also  have  means  at  his  disposal  for  carrying  them  out, 
and  bringing  his  train  to  a  stand  at  short  notice,  if 
necessary.  The  difficulty  of  doing  this  increases  much 
more  then  in  proportion  to  the  speed  at  which  the  train 
is  running,  and  very  rapidly  acting  and  powerful 
brakes  are  an  absolute  necessity  for  ensuring  the  safety 
of  trains  that  are  at  all  fast.  The  adoption  of  con- 
tinuous brakes,  more  than  any  one  other  thing,  has 
made  high  speeds  possible,  and  instead  of  the  trains 
being  brought  wearily  to  a  stand  by  hand  brakes  on 
the  engine  and  guard's  van,  as  was  formerly  the  case, 
the  driver  now,  by  a  motion  of  his  hand,  puts  on  the 
brakes  as  gently  or  as  hard  as  he  likes,  from  end  to  end 
of  the  train.  Of  all  the  numerous  systems  of  continuous 
brake  evolved  by  inventors,  the  Westinghouse  and  the 


THE  RAILWAYS   TO   THE  WEST        239 

automatic  vacuum  alone  are  used  in  Great  Britain. 
They  both  depend  for  their  working  on  a  pipe,  which 
stretches  from  the  engine  to  the  last  vehicle  of  the 
train.  In  the  case  of  the  Westinghouse  brake  the  pipe 
is  filled  from  an  air-pump  on  the  engine,  with  com- 
pressed air  at  a  high  pressure,  and  the  brake  is  applied 
by  reducing  this  pressure,  so  that  if  the  couplings  break 
and  the  train  divides,  the  compressed  air  is  liberated 
and  the  brake  goes  on  automatically.  In  the  case  of 
the  automatic  vacuum  brake  there  is  normally  in  the 
train  pipe  a  vacuum,  which  is  produced  by  an  ejector 
on  the  engine,  and  the  brake  is  applied  by  reducing  or 
destroying  the  vacuum.  In  this  case  also,  therefore, 
the  rupture  of  the  couplings  has  the  effect  of  applying 
the  brake. 

In  Great  Britain  there  are  few  descents  long,  steep, 
and  curved  enough  to  offer  any  serious  difficulties,  but 
in  some  parts  of  the  world,  notably  in  the  Alps  and 
Rocky  Mountains,  the  speed  has  to  be  kept  so  low  for 
so  long  together  that  special  measures  have  to  be  taken 
to  ensure  safety.  The  difficulty  arises  from  the  fact 
that  ordinary  continuous  brakes,  after  having  been 
applied  for  some  time,  have  a  tendency  to  leak  off,  and 
have  to  be  released,  preparatory  to  being  applied 
afresh.  This  operation  takes  an  appreciable  time  to 
carry  out,  particularly  if  the  train  is  a  very  long  one, 
and  during  this  interval,  if  the  brakes  were  taken  off 
altogether,  the  train  might  get  out  of  control.  So 
supplementary  devices  of  different  kinds  have  to  be 
employed.  In  America  the  exhaust  from  the  brake 
cylinder  of  the  Westinghouse  brake  is  fitted  with  a 
"  retaining  valve,"  which  can  be  put  into  or  out  of 
operation  as  required.  When  in  operation  it  acts  in 


240        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

the  same  way  as  a  safety  valve,  and,  when  otherwise 
the  brake  would  be  released  altogether,  allows  only  so 
much  compressed  air  to  escape  from  the  brake  cylinder 
as  will  still  leave  in  the  cylinder  a  pressure  of  10  or 
15  Ibs.  a  square  inch. 

The  biggest  South  Western  and  Caledonian  engines 
have  bogie  tenders  because,  owing  to  the  absence  of 
water  troughs  on  these  lines,  a  large  load  of  water  has 
to  be  carried,  and  a  few  other  bogie  tenders  have  from 
time  to  time  been  built  for  various  other  lines,  but  in 
Great  Britain  the  great  majority  of  tenders  run  on 
6  wheels.  Now  that  most  of  the  railways  have  put 
down  water  troughs,  the  weight  of  the  tenders  need  not 
exceed  what  can  be  carried  on  3  axles,  and  as  the 
shortness  of  the  wheel  base  of  a  tender  allows  it  to 
round  curves  quite  easily,  without  being  carried  on 
bogies,  there  is  no  particular  object  in  using  bogies — 
the  6- wheel  arrangement  has  indeed  some  advantages, 
as  it  enables  the  lateral  stability  of  the  tender  to  be 
secured  more  easily,  and  this  is  a  matter  of  some  im- 
portance in  a  vehicle  carrying  a  big  load  of  water, 
which  may,  under  certain  circumstances,  surge  from 
side  to  side. 

Where  it  is  possible  to  make  frequent  stops  for 
water,  the  use  of  tank  engines  makes  it  unnecessary  to 
have  tenders  at  all,  and,  as  it  is  just  on  services  of  this 
nature  that  the  engines  most  often  change  their  direc- 
tion, tank  engines,  which  run  equally  well  in  either 
direction,  possess  great  advantages.  Lately,  on  certain 
lines  like  the  Great  Western,  the  use  of  tank  engines  has 
been  extended,  and  some  big  engines  of  this  type  have 
been  built,  which  are  capable  of  performing  fairly  long 
runs  with  express  trains.  Where  water  troughs  exist 


THE  RAILWAYS  TO   THE  WEST       241 

at  sufficiently  frequent  intervals  there  is  little  to  prevent 
a  tank  engine  from  performing  runs  as  long  as  are 
performed  by  engines  with  tenders,  but  the  troughs  are 
not  as  a  rule  close  enough  together  to  enable  tank 
engines  to  undertake  very  long  runs.  The  height  from 
the  rail  of  the  spring-borne  portion  of  the  engine  must 
not  vary  more  than  a  very  little,  as  the  machinery  has 
to  be  arranged  to  work  at  one  height,  and  any  con- 
siderable deviation  therefrom  would  have  very  serious 
ill- effects.  As  any  difference  in  weight,  such  as  there 
would  be  between  an  engine  with  her  tanks  and  bunker 
empty  and  the  same  engine  with  her  tanks  and  bunker 
full,  has  the  effect  of  raising  and  lowering  the  height  of 
the  spring-borne  portion,  this  difference  must  be  con- 
fined within  narrow  limits,  and  so  the  tanks  must  not 
be  too  big ;  moreover,  the  engines  which  work  the 
principal  expresses  are  already  about  as  heavy  as  is 
desirable,  so,  if  they  had  also  to  carry  15  or  20  tons  of 
coal  and  water,  it  would  be  necessary  to  provide  them 
with  at  least  one  more  pair  of  wheels  which  would 
greatly  increase  their  cost  and  the  difficulty  of  designing 
them.  It  is,  therefore,  not  at  all  likely  that  tank 
engines  will  ever  be  much  used  for  working  express 
trains,  though  the  performances  of  the  big  Brighton 
tank  engines  on  the  "  Southern  Belle  "  have  shown 
that,  under  certain  circumstances,  they  are  capable  of 
doing  so. 


CHAPTER   V 

THE  RAILWAYS  TO   THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST 

Brighton  Railway — Electric  Railway  Working — The  Engines  of  the 
Brighton  Railway — South  Eastern  Railway — Continental  Services 
— Railway  Finance — Great  Eastern  Railway — Local  Taxation — 
Punctuality — Oil  Fuel — Future  of  Railways. 

THE  problem  of  working  the  traffic  in  and  out  of  London 
on  a  line  like  the  London,  Brighton,  and  South  Coast 
Railway,  or  the  South  Eastern  and  Chatham  Railway 
is  one  of  great  complication  as  compared  with  that  on 
one  of  the  big  lines  to  the  north. 

The  southern  lines  have  a  very  large  short-distance 
passenger  traffic,  as  all  the  country  lying  to  the  south- 
east, south,  and  south-west  of  London  is  full  of  people 
who  have  constantly  to  be  in  and  out  of  town  ;  and 
the  railways,  which  serve  these  districts,  require  the 
most  ample  facilities  for  getting  large  numbers  of 
people  to  various  convenient  points  in  London.  The 
South  Eastern,  possessing  no  less  than  four  termini 
just  north  of  the  Thames,  is  in  this  respect  almost 
ideally  situated.  The  Brighton,  with  its  termini  at 
Victoria  and  London  Bridge,  is  in  the  next  strongest 
position. 

The  Brighton  Railway  serves  a  long  stretch  of  the 
south  coast,  and  possesses  two  main  lines  thither  from 
London — one  running  due  south  to  Brighton,  and  the 
other  in  a  more  westerly  direction,  through  Dorking 


EAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST      243 

and  Horsham,  to  Ford  Junction,  where  it  joins  the 
line  which  stretches  along  the  coast  from  Hastings  in 
the  east  to  Portsmouth  in  the  west.  Besides  the  long- 
distance trains,  both  of  these  lines  have,  for  30  miles 
or  so  out  of  London,  to  accommodate  an  exceptionally 
large  volume  of  traffic  from  intermediate  stations,  and 
yet  another  line,  joining  the  line  from  Brighton  at 
Croydon,  and  used  jointly  with  the  South  Eastern, 
brings  a  great  deal  more  of  this  kind  of  traffic  to 
London.  A  large  proportion  of  all  these  trains  convey 
passengers  direct  to  both  of  the  company's  London 
termini,  and  this  makes  it  necessary  to  divide  them 
at  East  Croydon  or  Sutton.  Added  to  all  this  the 
company  possesses  a  whole  network  of  lines  in  the 
London  area,  also  connecting  with  both  Victoria  and 
London  Bridge.  The  difficulty,  therefore,  of  fitting 
in  all  the  different  kinds  of  trains  upon  all  the  different 
lines  is  obviously  very  great. 

London  Bridge,  though  it  has  the  disadvantage  of 
being  situated  south  of  the  Thames,  is  in  a  fairly  con- 
venient position  for  people  going  to  the  City,  and  the 
rebuilt  Victoria  is  certainly  the  most  spaciously  built 
and  conveniently  placed  station  in  London.  The 
reconstruction  of  Victoria  was  part  only  of  a  very 
ambitious  scheme  of  widenings,  which  was  to  embrace 
the  whole  of  the  main  line  to  Brighton,  and  is  not  yet 
complete.  As  time  passed  this  main  line  had  become 
more  and  more  crowded  with  traffic,  and  the  diffi- 
culties of  working  it  had  increased  correspondingly. 
This  was  particularly  felt  on  the  section  between 
Croydon  and  Redhill,  where  one  pair  of  lines  had  to 
suffice  not  only  for  the  Brighton  trains  to  and  from 
Victoria  and  London  Bridge,  but  also  for  a  large 


244       KAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

number  of  stopping  trains  belonging  to  the  South 
Eastern,  to  which  railway  a  section  of  the  line  actually 
belongs.  Here  relief  had  first  of  all  to  be  provided, 
and  in  1900  a  new  double  line  was  opened  by  the 
Brighton  Company.  As  far  as  Stoat's  Nest,  some 
three  or  four  miles,  it  runs  beside  the  old  line,  then 
diverges  to  the  west,  crosses  over  the  old  line  a  little 
before  the  Merstham  Tunnel  and  rejoins  it  just  before 
Earls  wood.  I  got  some  idea  of  the  enormous  advantage 
conferred  by  this  line  on  the  Brighton  Company,  when, 
shortly  after  it  was  opened,  an  express  train,  in  which 
I  was  travelling,  ran  past,  and  got  in  front  of,  no  less 
than  three  trains  which  were  running  along  the  old  line. 
After  this  widening  was  finished  other  sections  of  the 
main  line  were  successively  taken  in  hand,  and  four 
lines  now  extend  all  the  way  from  Victoria  to  the 
north  end  of  the  Balcombe  tunnel,  about  32  miles. 
Meanwhile,  the  reconstruction  of  Victoria  Station  was 
begun,  and,  after  it  had  been  steadily  proceeded  with 
for  a  number  of  years,  the  present  station  was  brought 
into  existence.  The  works  included  the  demolition 
of  a  long  line  of  houses,  the  alteration  of  the  level  of 
several  hundred  yards  of  street,  and  the  building  of 
a  large  wing  of  the  Grosvenor  Hotel.  However  fast 
the  traffic  grows,  this  huge  station  should  be  sufficient 
to  accommodate  it  for  any  period,  to  which  the  company 
can  reasonably  look  forward.  The  chief  point  that 
strikes  the  observer  is  its  great  length — the  platforms 
are  something  like  a  quarter  of  a  mile  long.  This 
arrangement  was  necessary,  as  it  was  impossible  to 
widen  the  station  towards  the  south  where  the  South 
Eastern  terminus  already  stood,  and  only  quite  a 
narrow  strip  of  land  was  available  on  the  north  towards 


EAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    245 

Buckingham  Palace  Road.  The  platforms  are,  there- 
fore, arranged  in  such  a  manner  that  two  trains  can 
be  drawn  up,  one  behind  the  other  at  each.  Specially 
convenient  features  of  the  new  station  are  the  large 
circulating  area  round  the  booking  offices  and  waiting 
rooms,  and  the  wide  platforms,  which  give  a  feeling 
of  spaciousness,  unfortunately  too  often  lacking  in 
London  termini.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the 
old  station  was  bit  by  bit  swept  away,  and  the  new 
one,  in  which  no  trace  of  the  old  one  can  be  detected, 
put  in  its  place,  without  a  day's  suspension  of  the 
traffic,  it  must  be  recognised  that  the  engineers  per- 
formed a  very  considerable  feat. 

In  Brighton  the  Brighton  Railway  possesses  in 
some  respects  the  most  favourably  situated  sea-side 
town  in  the  world.  The  main  line  runs  in  practically 
a  straight  line  from  London  to  Brighton.  It  is  well 
suited  for  fast  running — it  is  admirably  laid,  it  has 
fairly  easy  gradients,  and,  except  in  the  London  area, 
there  are  no  curves,  where  speed  has  to  be  seriously 
reduced.  The  possibilities  of  traffic  between  London 
and  Brighton  are,  therefore,  immense.  But,  owing 
probably  to  the  crowded  state  of  the  line  and  the  great 
consideration  which  has  to  be  given  to  the  valuable 
suburban  and  semi-suburban  traffic  conducted  along 
it,  which  make  it  a  matter  of  some  difficulty  to  fit  in 
trains  running  very  much  faster  than  the  average,  the 
company  has  never  made  any  attempt  to  develop  the 
London-Brighton  traffic  to  anything  like  the  point 
which  the  very  favourable  position  of  Brighton  renders 
possible.  There  is  no  disguising  the  fact  that  for 
a  very  long  time  the  trains  between  London  and 
Brighton  were  slow,  Up  to  quite  a  short  time  ago 


246        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

the  best  up  train  took  70  minutes  and  the  best  down 
train  65  minutes  (except  on  Sundays,  when  there  was 
a  train  in  either  direction  in  an  hour).  Lately  one-hour 
trains  in  each  direction  began  to  run  on  week  days, 
and  have  now  been  multiplied  till  there  are  a  fair  number 
of  them  each  way,  but  better  things  are  required. 
If  the  company  intends  to  make  full  use  of  Brighton 
it  will  have  to  put  on  a  frequent  service  of  really  fast 
trains  in  both  directions,  which,  now  that  the  line  to 
Brighton  has  been  quadrupled  to  the  very  edge  of  the 
suburban  area,  should  present  no  insuperable  diffi- 
culties. 

The  London-Brighton  service  has  been  compared 
by  many  writers  with  the  celebrated  service  in  the 
United  States  between  Philadelphia  and  Atlantic  City, 
and  the  comparison  is  instructive.  I  do  not  know 
what  the  present  timings  of  these  American  trains  are, 
but  for  many  summers  the  Pennsylvania  Railway 
used  to  cover  the  58j  miles  from  its  Camden  Station 
to  Atlantic  City  in  52  minutes,  start  to  stop,  and  the 
rival  Philadelphia  and  Reading  trains  were  allowed 
50  minutes  for  their  55|  miles,  also  start-to-stop.  I 
am  not  acquainted  with  the  line  of  the  latter  company, 
but  on  the  Pennsylvania  line  the  trains  lost  at  least 
a  minute  at  either  end  of  the  run  owing  to  speed 
restrictions.  One  day,  when  I  travelled  with  one  of 
these  trains,  the  middle  52  miles,  where  there  are  no 
slacks,  were  covered  in  40  mins.  48  sees.  The  Brighton 
line  is  not,  on  the  whole,  more  difficult  than  the 
Pennsylvania,  so  it  is  certainly  possible  to  run  between 
London  and  Brighton  in  45  minutes,  and,  if  it  pays 
the  American  railways  to  run  these  trains  for  the 
benefit  of  Philadelphia,  how  much  more  should  it  pay 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    247 

the  British  company  to  run  equally  fast  trains  for  the 
benefit  of  London,  which  has  four  times  the  popula- 
tion of  Philadelphia.  At  present  people  coming  up 
to  London  from  Brighton  for  the  day,  or  going  down 
to  Brighton  from  London,  cannot  do  the  double 
journey  in  less  than  2  hours.  This  is  probably  just 
long  enough  to  deter  them  from  travelling  very  fre- 
quently. If  the  double  journey  could  be  done  in  an 
hour  and  a  half  a  new  set  of  conditions  would  arise, 
and  Brighton,  from  being  a  provincial  town,  would 
become  practically  a  suburb  of  London. 

The  very  favourable  position  of  Brighton  in  relation 
to  London  has  not  escaped  the  eye  of  the  financier, 
and  at  intervals  schemes  for  the  construction  of  new 
railways  from  London  to  Brighton  are  launched,  the 
object  generally  being  to  enable  the  journey  to  be 
performed  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  is  possible  by 
the  Brighton  Railway.  To  judge  from  the  failure  in 
the  past  of  any  of  these  schemes  to  rouse  the  Brighton 
Railway  into  activity,  none  of  them  can  have  been 
considered  by  the  company  at  all  likely  to  come  to 
anything  ;  and  all  these  attacks  having  been  beaten 
off,  it  certainly  seems  unlikely  that  a  rival  line  will 
ever  now  make  its  way  to  Brighton.  But  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  the  company,  secure  as  it  is  from 
competition,  will  not  allow  its  newly  acquired  spirit 
of  enterprise  to  evaporate  before  it  has  rendered  its 
position  securer  still  by  the  introduction  of  the  really 
rapid  service  which  the  situation  demands,  and  for 
which  its  customers  have  already  waited  all  too  long. 
As  regards  the  services  to  the  other  big  places  on 
the  line  besides  Brighton,  they  are  in  most  cases  only 
moderately  good.  Portsmouth  is  probably  the  next 


248        KAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

most  important  place  on  the  system,  but,  as  the  South 
Western  possesses  a  much  shorter  route  thither,  the 
credit  or  otherwise  of  the  Portsmouth  service  attaches 
primarily  to  that  company.  In  the  same  manner  the 
Hastings  service  is  primarily  the  responsibility  of  the 
South  Eastern.  But  Eastbourne  depends  on  the 
Brighton  company  as  completely  as  does  Brighton 
itself,  and,  though  some  quite  convenient  trains  run 
between  London  and  Eastbourne,  several  of  which  have 
just  been  quickened  by  5  minutes,  the  average  speed 
of  under  47  miles  an  hour,  at  which  the  best  of  these 
trains  run,  is  unduly  low,  even  when  the  existence  of 
some  very  nasty  curves — particularly  those  at  Lewes 
— is  allowed  for.  Lewes  must  be  nearly,  if  not  quite, 
the  most  awkward  station  in  England.  The  main  line 
from  London  approaches  on  a  falling  gradient,  and 
through  a  tunnel,  at  the  end  of  which  it  turns  abruptly 
into  the  station  by  the  sharpest  possible  curve,  and 
continues  on  curves  of  small  radius  for  some  distance 
beyond  ;  and,  to  make  matters  worse,  there  is  at  the 
further  end  of  the  station  a  most  complicated  system 
of  points  and  crossings,  where  lines  run  in  from  Brighton 
on  the  one  side  and  from  the  East  Sussex  district  on  the 
other. 

If  the  Brighton  Railway  possesses  a  district  very 
rich  in  passengers,  it  has  not  secured  this  district  for 
nothing.  There  are  few  lines  where  the  natural 
obstacles  are  so  continuous.  In  the  51  miles  between 
Victoria  and  Brighton,  the  ridges  and  depressions  all 
lie  across  the  path  of  the  line,  and  the  works  include 
the  bridge  over  the  Thames  at  Grosvenor  Road,  a 
considerable  viaduct,  and  some  half-dozen  tunnels — 
two  of  them  more  than  a  mile  long.  The  great  expense 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    249 

is  probably  the  chief  reason  why  this  line  was  not 
earlier  widened,  and,  even  now,  the  widenings  have  only 
proceeded  as  far  as  the  point  after  which  the  natural 
obstacles  become  the  most  severe  and  continuous. 

With  the  widening  of  the  main  line  and  the  rebuild- 
ing of  Victoria  Station,  the  Brighton  Railway's  re- 
forming energies  were  not  exhausted.  For  many  years 
the  railway  companies  have  been  complaining  that  the 
short-distance  traffic  was  being  filched  from  them  by 
tramways,  which,  passing  people's  very  doors  at  short 
intervals  of  time,  have  offered  attractions  with  which 
railways  could  not  compete,  and  in  many  cases,  being 
subsidised  by  the  rates,  have  demanded  excessively 
low  fares.  For  very  short-distance  traffic  it  is  im- 
probable that  the  railways  will  ever  be  able  to  recover 
the  ground  which  they  have  lost  to  the  tramways  ; 
but  the  tramcars,  running  as  they  do  through  the 
streets,  can  never  attain  any  very  great  speed,  and, 
though  this  is  a  matter  of  minor  importance  for  very 
short-distance  traffic,  the  Brighton  company  thought 
that  for  distances  over  about  a  couple  of  miles  it  might 
be  possible,  by  introducing  electric  working,  to  provide 
a  service  so  much  superior  to  that  of  the  tramcars  in 
point  of  speed  that  there  would  be  a  very  good  chance 
of  competing  with  the  tramways  successfully.  The 
Brighton  company  possesses  a  line,  nine  miles  long, 
beginning  at  Victoria,  running  through  South  London, 
and  finishing  up  at  London  Bridge,  which  is  peculiarly 
exposed  to  tramway  competition,  and  a  beginning  was 
made  by  the  electrification  of  this  line.  When  it  was 
worked  by  steam  locomotives,  the  nine  miles,  in  which 
there  are  the  same  number  of  intermediate  stations, 
took  some  35  minutes  to  cover.  Owing  to  the  much 


250        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

greater  rapidity  with  which  the  electric  trains  can  get 
away  from  the  stations,  the  journey  now  takes  only 
about  two- thirds  of  the  time  which  it  used  to  take. 

The  installation  of  electricity  on  a  line  of  this  sort 
is  something  of  an  experiment.  Here  the  conditions 
are  not  the  same  as  those  which  are  found  in  the  tubes. 
Except  on  the  score  of  inability  to  start  very  quickly, 
there  is  no  particular  objection  to  steam  locomotives 
on  a  line  of  this  kind,  in  the  open  air.  Though,  in 
respect  of  rapid  starting,  electric  working  will  always 
have  some  advantage  over  steam  working,  it  would 
have  been  possible  to  build  steam  locomotives  which, 
with  the  light  trains  required,  could  start  very  much 
more  quickly  than  the  steam  locomotives  which 
were  used  were  in  the  habit  of  doing.  Six-coupled 
engines  with  three  high-pressure  cylinders  would 
not  waste  much  time  getting  into  speed,  unless  the 
trains  were  much  heavier  than  those  running  between 
London  Bridge  and  Victoria,  and  the  expense  of  build- 
ing eight  or  ten  such  engines  could  hardly  have  been 
anything  approaching  that  which  was  involved  in 
arranging  the  line  for  electric  working.  If  electricity 
is  in  this  case  to  gain  a  victory  over  steam,  its  working 
costs  must  be  much  smaller  than  those  of  steam.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  this  will  prove  to  be  the  case. 

The  Brighton  Company,  at  any  rate,  seems  to  be 
particularly  well  satisfied  with  the  electric  working, 
for,  very  shortly  indeed  after  it  had  been  put  into 
operation  on  the  South  London  line,  large  and  elaborate 
extensions  to  the  Crystal  Palace  and  over  other  lines  in 
the  suburban  area  were  put  in  hand. 

Most  of  us  grew  up  so  much  accustomed  to  the 
steam  locomotive  that  we  had  some  difficulty  in 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    251 

reconciling  ourselves  to  the  idea  of  an  electric  locomo- 
tive, and  the  first  electric  train  we  saw  without  an 
engine  at  all  looked  like  a  conjuring  trick.  When  the 
possibility  of  using  electricity  as  a  motive  power  on 
railways  was  realised,  many  people  had  a  strong, 
though  ill-defined,  feeling  that  this  new  and  mysterious 
power  would  in  a  short  time  sweep  away  the  antiquated 
steam  locomotive,  and  make  all  railway  things  new. 
This  view  seems  to  have  been  held  also  by  the  more 
enthusiastic  of  the  electrical  engineers.  The  years 
which  have  passed  by  have  served  to  fix  our  ideas. 
That  a  revolution  has  come  to  pass,  and  a  very  great 
one  too,  is  certain.  Almost  every  part  of  London  can 
now  quickly  and  cheaply  be  reached  from  almost  every 
other  part  by  trains  running  in  tubes  deep  down  in 
the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  this  is  due  entirely  to  the 
electricity  that  neither  exhausts  nor  fouls  the  air,  and 
makes  possible  the  very  rapid  succession  of  trains, 
which  distinguishes  the  new  deep  level  lines.  But  for 
all  the  revolution  has  been  a  striking  one,  it  has  been 
partial  only,  and  the  limits  set  to  the  use  of  electricity 
on  railways  are  becoming  apparent.  For  all  urban  and 
suburban  services,  where  the  trains  follow  one  another 
at  short  intervals,  and  stops  are  frequent,  it  is  of  a 
certain  value,  owing  to  the  fact  that  as  many  of  the 
axles  of  a  train  as  required — all  if  necessary — can  be 
made  driving  axles,  so  that  a  very  large  weight  can  be 
used  for  adhesion  and  speed  gathered  very  rapidly 
from  rest.  Its  use,  too,  in  long  tunnels  on  steep 
gradients,  where  the  ventilation  is  defective,  may 
obviate  the  use  of  very  expensive  blowing  engines, 
without  which  the  air  of  the  tunnel  would  so  quickly 
become  exhausted  by  the  combustion  in  the  fire-boxes 


252        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

of  steam  locomotives  as  to  make  it  dangerous  to  life 
and  incapable  of  supplying  oxygen  to  the  fires.  In 
some  parts  of  the  world  tunnels  worked  by  steam  loco- 
motives, particularly  if  they  are  single  line  tunnels, 
have  an  atmosphere  so  bad  that,  as  the  locomotive 
plunges  into  them,  the  lungs  of  any  one  on  the  foot- 
plate feel  as  if  they  were  being  filled  with  hot  particles 
of  sand.  But  that  electricity  has  much  of  a  field 
before  it  for  working  long-distance  main  line  traffic 
does  not  so  far  seem  to  be  the  case,  as  here  the  advan- 
tages, which  the  use  of  electricity  offers,  are  of  no 
particular  value.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  much  import- 
ance whether  a  train  running  50  miles  without  a  stop 
takes  2  minutes  or  4  minutes  to  attain  full  speed. 
Electricity  before  it  displaces  steam  for  main  line  traffic 
will  have  to  show  some  considerable  advantage  in  cost, 
and,  when  the  electricity  is  generated  by  means  of 
steam  engines  it  is  obvious  that  the  advantage  in  this 
respect  is  not  likely  to  be  very  great.  In  this  con- 
nection it  may  be  noted  that  the  Brighton  Railway  has 
so  far  most  carefully  avoided  making  public  the  cost 
of  its  electric  services.  In  countries  where  a  great 
deal  of  water-power  is  available,  it  is  different,  and  in 
Sweden  and  Switzerland,  for  instance,  electricity, 
having  the  advantage  of  greater  cheapness,  will  no 
doubt  be  much  used.  But  that  it  will  displace  steam 
on  British  main  lines  seems  improbable,  until  some 
means  are  found  for  generating  it  much  more  cheaply 
than  can  now  be  done  in  a  steam  power-station.  The 
tides,  the  winds,  improved  gas-engines,  all  offer  possi- 
bilities in  this  direction,  but  there  is  no  immediate 
prospect  of  the  realisation  of  these  possibilities.  Mean- 
while, for  long-distance  work,  the  steam  locomotive 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    253 

fulfils  with  ease  every  requirement  of  the  case,  is 
certainly  capable  of  doing  much  more  than  is  now 
demanded  of  it,  and  possesses,  too,  the  enormous 
advantage  of  being  self-contained.  The  breakdown 
of  one  steam  locomotive  does  not  involve  the  break- 
down of  another,  but,  with  electricity,  any  failure 
of  the  supply  may  stop  the  traffic  of  a  whole 
district. 

In  derogation  of  the  steam  locomotive  it  is  not 
infrequently  asserted  that,  beyond  compounding  and 
superheating,  no  improvement  in  principle  has  been 
made  from  the  days  of  Stephenson,  to  the  present  time. 
Though  this  is  no  doubt  approximately  true  in  the 
narrowest  sense,  a  more  misleading  statement  could 
hardly  be  made.  Since  that  time  the  design  and 
workmanship  of  practically  every  detail  have  been 
enormously  improved,  while  the  increases  in  size  and 
power  that  have  taken  place  are  so  great  as  to  put  the 
modern  engine  and  her  ancient  prototype  in  the 
relative  positions  of  the  largest  horse  and  the  most 
diminutive  donkey.  What  is  perhaps  the  greatest 
advance  in  steam  engineering  practice  that  has  ever 
been  made — the  replacement  of  reciprocating  machinery 
by  the  turbine — can,  unfortunately,  hardly  be  applied 
directly  to  the  driving  wheels  of  locomotives,  though 
various  engines  have  from  time  to  time  been  built  to 
combine  the  advantages  of  steam  and  electricity,  and 
in  one  of  them  the  electricity  used  for  driving  the 
wheels  was  first  of  all  generated  by  means  of  a  steam 
turbine.  For  an  arrangement  of  this  kind  to  be  suc- 
cessful the  combined  loss  of  efficiency  of  steam  engine 
and  electric  motor  would  have  to  be  so  much  less  than 
the  loss  in  an  ordinary  locomotive  as  to  compensate  for 


254       RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

the  additional  expense  involved  in  the  building  and 
upkeep  of  two  sets  of  machinery  instead  of  one. 

The  Brighton  Railway  is  said  to  be  about  to  con- 
sider a  scheme  for  extending  the  electrification  of  its 
lines  so  as  to  embrace  the  main  line  to  Brighton.  As 
before  remarked,  the  desirability  or  otherwise  of  such 
a  course  is  entirely  a  question  of  cost.  Apart  from  the 
question  of  cost,  electricity  offers  for  ordinary  main 
line  working  no  appreciable  advantage  over  steam. 
The  carrying  out  of  such  a  scheme  must  partake  very 
much  of  the  nature  of  a  step  in  the  dark.  It  would  be 
an  interesting  step,  and,  if  from  no  other  motive  than 
curiosity,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will  be  taken. 

Besides  electricity,  another  possible  rival  of  the  steam 
locomotive  has  lately  sprung  up  in  the  Diesel  engine,  an 
internal  combustion  engine,  which  works  with  crude 
oil.  This  engine,  which  returns  in  the  shape  of  useful 
work  a  far  larger  percentage  of  the  power  which  it 
receives  than  a  steam  engine  could  ever  do,  has  lately 
come  rapidly  into  favour,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that 
extensive  experiments  with  locomotives  constructed 
on  this  principle  will  be  made. 

It  is  fair  to  remark  that  when  and  if  the  steam 
locomotive  is  superseded  by  other  modes  of  traction 
there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  railways  will  appeal 
much  less  than  is  now  the  case  to  the  non-technical 
public.  Probably  the  steam  locomotive  has  at  least 
as  strong  a  hold  upon  the  imagination  of  at  least  as 
large  a  proportion  of  the  population  as  had  the  horse 
before  the  advent  of  railways.  There  is  so  much  about 
the  steam  locomotive  which  suggests  life.  Fire,  steam, 
smoke,  the  deep  rhythmical  beat  of  the  exhaust,  all 
help  enormously  in  making  that  powerful  appeal  to 


KAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    255 

the  imagination  which  the  steam  locomotive  addresses 
to  so  many  people.  The  mere  fact  that  the  steam 
locomotive  is  not  covered  in  has  been  an  enormous 
advantage  in  stimulating  general  interest.  Every  part 
can  be  studied  almost  as  easily  as  the  points  of  a  horse, 
and  the  gradual  growth  and  development  of  the  loco- 
motive can  readily  be  discerned  and  their  causes  under- 
stood by  people  who  have  had  no  technical  training. 
The  internal  combustion  engine,  or  the  electric  loco- 
motive, can  never  be  much  more  to  look  at  than  boxes 
on  wheels,  and,  although  probably  not  less  interesting 
than  the  steam  locomotive  to  engineers,  who  under- 
stand all  about  them,  must  be  hopelessly  left  behind 
as  regards  the  strength  of  the  appeal  which  they  make 
to  popular  imagination  ;  and  though  it  is  neither  pos- 
sible to  estimate  the  pecuniary  value  of  sentiment, 
nor  desirable  to  attempt  to  do  so,  the  railways  could 
hardly  fail  to  be  heavy  losers  if  the  appeal  to  senti- 
ment which  they  make  were  to  be  greatly  weakened. 
For  myself,  I  must  confess  that  I  am  one  of  that  large 
company  of  people  who  find  in  the  steam  locomotive 
an  object  to  which  attaches  a  very  high  degree  of 
romance.  I  know  few  more  thrilling  sensations  than 
to  stand  on  the  footplate  of  an  express  engine  which 
is  rushing  along  at  70  miles  an  hour  through  the  sleep- 
ing country,  with  the  dawn  just  beginning  to  appear, 
while  the  dusky  forms  of  the  driver  and  fireman  and 
the  great  cloud  of  white  steam,  as  it  rolls  away  over- 
head, are  lit  up  from  time  to  time  by  the  glare  from  the 
furnace  when  the  door  is  opened  for  a  fresh  charge  of 
fuel. 

One  of  the  greatest  names  among  the  designers  of 
locomotives  in  the  past  is  that  of  William  Stroudley, 


256        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

for  many  years  locomotive  superintendent  of  the 
Brighton  Railway.  His  fame  does  not  rest  upon  any 
particularly  startling  achievements  of  his  engines. 
Little  opportunity  was  ever  given  them  to  distinguish 
themselves  by  such  means.  Nor  were  any  very  im- 
portant new  inventions  made  by  Mr.  Stroudley,  but 
the  striking  originality  of  his  designs,  their  great  every- 
day efficiency,  the  masterly  way  in  which  all  the  details 
were  worked  out,  and  his  firm  grasp  of  the  importance 
of  reducing  the  number  of  types  of  engines  employed, 
and  of  making  as  many  as  possible  of  the  parts  of  the 
different  types  the  same,  made  a  deep  impression  upon 
the  subsequent  development  of  locomotive  practice. 

The  outstanding  feature  of  interest  in  Mr.  Stroudley '3 
designs  was  his  wholesale  adoption  of  the  four-wheels- 
coupled-in-front  arrangement.  This  arrangement  pos- 
sesses almost  every  possible  advantage,  if  it  is  desired 
to  construct  an  engine  of  moderate  weight,  of  great 
power  in  comparison  with  her  weight,  and  a  smooth 
runner.  Front-coupled  tank  engines  are,  of  course, 
used  now  to  a  considerable  extent,  but  for  express 
passenger  trains  other  designers  have  always  held  that 
the  leading  pair  (if  not  two  pairs)  of  wheels  have  quite 
enough  to  do  to  lead,  and  no  designer  has  ever  before 
or  since  ventured  to  use  leading  coupled  wheels  for 
express  engines,  being  apparently  afraid  that,  even  if 
they  did  not  leave  the  rails,  they  would  do  some  damage 
to  the  permanent  way.  But  Mr.  Stroudley  had  no 
fears  on  the  score  of  the  front-coupled  wheels,  and  it 
is  by  his  express  engines  of  the  "  Gladstone  "  class— 
6-wheel  engines  with  four  coupled  leading  wheels,  6  ft. 
6  ins.  in  diameter,  and  a  small  pair  of  carrying  wheels 
under  the  footplate — that  he  will  be  remembered  more 


EAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    257 

than  by  any  others ;  if  confidence  has  ever  been  justi- 
fied his  has  been  by  the  record  of  these  admirable 
locomotives,  which,  even  now,  more  than  30  years 
after  the  appearance  of  the  type,  are  capable  of  dealing 
with  the  best  trains  on  the  Brighton  Railway,  and  have 
never  yet  been  the  cause  of  an  accident.  The  virtues 
of  the  design  lie  in  its  great  compactness.  The  two 
pairs  of  front-coupled  wheels  can  be  put  as  close  together 
as  necessary,  and  there  are  no  large  wheels  behind  to 
set  limits  to  the  size  and  disposition  of  the  fire-box  or 
the  internal  width  of  the  cab  ;  the  small  trailing  wheels 
are  conveniently  placed  under  the  fire-box,  not  too 
far  from  the  driving  wheels,  and  run  more  smoothly 
than  coupled  wheels  would  run.  In  consequence  of 
this  arrangement,  these  engines  are  remarkably  little 
fatiguing  to  travel  upon.  With  the  addition  of  a 
leading  bogie,  this  type  of  engine  becomes  the 
4-4-2  type,  which  is  now  one  of  the  favourite  kinds 
of  modern  express  engine.  Though  no  very  spec- 
tacular feats  are  generally  credited  to  the  "  Glad- 
stones," there  is  a  legend,  for  the  accuracy  of  which 
I  do  not  vouch,  that  one  of  them  on  one  occasion, 
many  years  ago,  when  working  a  light  special  train, 
passed  Redhill  from  Brighton — nearly  30  miles — in  26 
minutes  from  the  start.  Quite  recently  I  timed  one 
of  these  engines  to  cover  22  miles,  more  uphill  than 
down,  in  21  minutes  13  seconds  with  a  load  of  150  tons 
behind  the  tender. 

Of  late  years  much  attention  has  been  paid  to 
increasing  the  efficiency  of  locomotives.  From  the 
time  the  water  is  put  into  the  tender  till  the  moment 
when  it  enters  the  cylinders  as  steam  heat  may  be 
added  to  it  at  various  stages  with  advantageous  results, 

s 


258        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

particularly   if   the   heat   employed   would   otherwise 
have  gone  to  waste.     There  have,  for  instance,  lately 
been  built  in  America  some  very  large  engines,  which, 
besides  possessing  boilers  of  enormous  power,  are  fitted 
with  arrangements  for  heating  the  water  before  it  is 
sent  into  the  boiler,  then  for  superheating  the  steam 
on  its  way  from  the  boiler  to  the  high-pressure  cylinders, 
and  lastly  for  adding  yet  more  heat  to  the  steam  as  it 
passes    between    the   high-pressure    and    low-pressure 
cylinders.     If  the  feed-water  can  be  heated  up  with 
exhaust  steam,  the  result  is  pure  gain,  as  the  heat 
would  otherwise  have  been  dissipated  in  the  atmosphere. 
One  difficulty  in  the  way  of  heating  the  feed- water  lies 
in  the  fact  that  that  marvellous  appliance,  the  injector, 
will  not  work  with  very  hot  feed-water,  and,  in  some 
cases,  pumps  have  to  be  used  instead,  which  are  far 
more  complicated  than,  and  (if  driven  off  the  motion) 
not  nearly  so  convenient  as,  injectors,  which  will  work 
equally  well  whether  the  engine  is  standing  or  running. 
In  Mr.   Stroudley's  time,  nevertheless,  the  Brighton 
Company  went  in  largely  for  heating  the  feed-water 
with   exhaust   steam,   and   secured   very   satisfactory 
results,  and,  at  the  present  time,  feed-water  heating 
is  coming  widely  into  fashion.     But  superheating  the 
steam  is  now  the  way  in  which  increased  economy  is 
most  generally  sought,  and  the  Brighton  Railway  was 
one  of  the  first  British  companies  to  make  experiments 
with  superheaters.     The  most  widely  held  view  is  that, 
for  superheating  to  be  really  effective,  quite  a  large 
amount  of  the  heat  of  the  fire  must  be  diverted  from 
the  water  in  the  boiler  and  applied  to  the  steam  in  the 
superheater,  so  that  the  temperature  of  the  steam  is 
raised  far  above  that  at  which  no  particle  of  moisture 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST     259 

remains  in  it.  A  great  deal  of  heat  is  taken  from  the 
steam  on  its  way  through  the  cylinders.  The  exhaust 
steam,  which  escapes  during  the  return  stroke  of  the 
piston,  is  comparatively  cool,  and  reduces  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  cylinder,  which  has  to  be  heated  up  again 
by  the  next  supply  of  incoming  steam.  In  performing 
work,  also,  the  steam  loses  an  amount  of  heat  propor- 
tional to  the  work  done.  When  superheated  steam 
is  employed,  there  should,  in  theory  at  least,  be  so 
much  heat  in  it  that  the  loss  of  all  that  which  is 
abstracted  in  the  cylinders  is  not  sufficient  to  reduce 
the  temperature  to  the  point  where  drops  of  water 
begin  to  form  ;  otherwise  the  steam  is  no  longer  super- 
heated, and  the  useful  characteristics  of  superheated 
steam  are  lost.  As  has  elsewhere  been  remarked,  the 
principal  ones  are  its  greater  volume  (a  given  amount 
of  heat  will  produce  a  greater  volume  of  superheated, 
than  of  saturated,  steam  at  a  given  pressure),  its 
greater  liveliness,  which  makes  it  far  more  rapid  in 
its  movements  than  wet  steam,  and  its  low  conduc- 
tivity of  heat,  which  (perhaps)  causes  it  to  give  up 
comparatively  little  of  the  heat,  which  it  contains,  to 
the  metal  surfaces  with  which  it  comes  into  contact. 
If  the  steam  remained  superheated  till  after  the  exhaust 
had  taken  place,  this  extra  liveliness  should  enable 
locomotives  using  it  to  attain  much  higher  speeds  than 
is  now  possible.  The  best  designed  express  locomo- 
tives of  the  present  time,  working  with  ordinary  wet 
steam,  would  probably  be  unable,  under  any  circum- 
stances, to  reach  a  speed  of  more  than  about  100  miles 
an  hour  on  the  level,  on  account  of  their  inability  to 
get  rid  of  their  exhaust  steam,  which  cannot  escape 
rapidly  enough  through  the  exhaust  passages.  But 


2CO        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

superheated  steam  is  many  times  more  nimble  in  its 
movements  than  wet  steam,  and  with  it  no  difficulties 
of  this  kind  should  be  encountered  in  reaching  speeds 
which  are  to-day  unheard  of.  Unfortunately,  however, 
by  the  time  the  exhaust  takes  place,  the  steam,  even 
though  highly  superheated  to  begin  with,  is  nearly 
certain  to  be  more  or  less  wet,  though  it  is  much  less 
wet  than  in  an  engine  using  saturated  steam  in  the 
ordinary  way. 

Till  comparatively  recent  times  plain  flat  slide 
valves  were  used  on  practically  all  British  engines. 
These  valves  are  very  cheap,  and,  consisting  of  one 
part  only,  very  simple  to  make,  but,  as  they  are  pressed 
down  upon  their  seats  by  a  great  power  of  steam,  a 
great  deal  of  force  is  required  to  overcome  the  fric- 
tional  resistance  thus  set  up.  So  long  as  the  engine 
uses  wet  steam,  the  heat  generated  by  this  friction 
is  rapidly  carried  off,  and  no  further  drawback  ensues 
than  a  certain  loss  of  power.  Sometimes,  to  reduce 
the  friction,  big  engines  have  an  arrangement  for  pre- 
venting the  steam  from  pressing  upon  more  than  a 
certain  portion  of  the  valve.  With  the  advent  of 
superheated  steam,  which  is  much  hotter,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  a  much  worse  conductor  of  heat,  than 
ordinary  wet  steam,  it  became  necessary  to  use  slide 
valves,  which  would  move  with  very  little  friction, 
and  piston  valves,  which  had  already  been  adopted  to 
a  small  extent,  are  now  generally  employed  in  con- 
junction with  superheated  steam.  These  valves,  as 
the  name  implies,  are  of  cylindrical  cross-section,  and 
work  in  cylindrical  chambers,  close  to  the  main  cylinders 
of  the  engine,  to  and  from  which  they  allow  steam  to 
pass  round  their  own  edges.  The  steam  presses  equally 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    261 

all  round  the  valve,  which  consequently  can  be  made 
to  work  with  only  enough  friction  to  keep  it  tight. 
As  the  steam  is  admitted  and  released  round  almost 
the  whole  of  the  edge  of  the  valve,  valves  of  quite 
moderate  diameter  give  the  steam  very  free  ingress 
to,  and  egress  from,  the  cylinders.  As  there  is  no 
object  in  keeping  down  the  diameter  of  the  valve  below 
what  is  quite  sufficient  for  the  biggest  engines,  the 
common  practice  now  is  to  have  only  one  pattern  of 
piston  valve — generally  10  inches  in  diameter — for  all 
the  different  kinds  of  engines,  which  are  fitted  with 
valves  of  this  type. 

After  Mr.  Stroudley's  death  the  Brighton  Company 
abandoned  the  front-coupled  arrangement  for  express 
engines,  and  for  some  time  all  the  new  express  engines 
built  were  of  the  orthodox  4-4-0  type.  Quite  lately, 
however,  the  practice  of  this  line  has  again  become 
somewhat  out  of  the  ordinary  in  the  extensive  use 
which  is  made  of  tank  engines  for  working  the  fastest 
express  trains.  The  use  of  tank  engines  has,  of  course, 
lately  been  extended  on  other  lines  besides  the  Brighton, 
and  the  increase  in  the  size  and  power  of  such  engines 
on  many  lines  has  been  as  noticeable  as  has  been  the 
case  with  express  and  goods  engines  with  tenders. 
But  for  tank  engines  to  take  their  turn  regularly  with 
tender  engines  of  the  most  powerful  type  in  working 
express  trains  timed  at  over  50  miles  an  hour  is  a 
condition  of  affairs  found  only  on  the  Brighton  Rail- 
way. The  tank  engines,  which  perform  this  work,  are 
naturally  large  and  powerful  machines  with  big  driving 
wheels,  and  they  are  fitted  with  superheaters.  They 
are  of  two  types  ;  one  is  a  four-coupled  engine  with  a 
leading  bogie  and  a  small  pair  of  trailing  wheels,  and 


262        KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

inside  cylinders ;  the  other  has  six-coupled  wheels 
and  outside  cylinders  (4-6-2).  The  latter  type,  of 
which  only  one  or  two  have  so  far  been  built,  is  very 
large  indeed,  and  weighs  in  full  working  order  over 
85  tons.  The  company  seems  to  be  well  satisfied  with 
the  tank  engines,  and  has  lately  built  a  new  series  of  the 
four-coupled  type,  but,  in  view  of  the  greater  all-round 
usefulness  of  six-coupled  engines  in  general,  and  the  very 
smooth  and  easy  running  of  the  Brighton  six- coupled 
design  in  particular,  it  will  not  be  surprising  if  the 
latter  ends  by  gaining  the  preference.  Remarkable  as 
the  tank  engines  are,  they  are,  nevertheless,  not  the 
most  powerful  machines  which  the  company  now  pos- 
sesses, and,  to  see  the  Brighton  Railway  at  its  best, 
one  must  receive  the  permission  of  the  authorities  to 
accompany  one  of  the  big  4-4-2  tender  engines 
some  Sunday,  when  the  "  Southern  Belle "  runs 
between  London  and  Brighton  with  seven  Pullmans, 
all  packed  with  passengers.  One  Sunday  afternoon 
lately  I  was  fortunate  in  finding  No.  422  working  the 
5  p.m.  from  Brighton.  This  engine  is  one  of  the  later 
lot,  fitted  with  superheaters  and  enlarged  cylinders — 
21  ins.  by  26  ins. — while  the  boiler  pressure  has  been 
reduced  from  200  Ibs.  to  170  Ibs.  per  square  inch. 
Very  smart  did  No.  422  look  in  her  clean  coat  of 
chocolate  paint,  and  not  a  few  were  the  onlookers, 
who  had  been  attracted  to  see  her  start  off  on  her 
journey,  for  Brighton,  as  well  it  may  do,  takes  much 
interest  in  this  train.  Punctually  at  5  the  signal  was 
given  and,  without  the  driving  wheels  slipping  an  inch, 
the  great  engine  was  set  in  motion.  The  seven  Pullman 
cars  with  their  passengers  weighed  quite  300  tons, 
engine  and  tender  are  well  over  100  more,  and  the 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    263 

first  4|  miles  from  Brighton  to  the  entrance  of  the 
Clayton  tunnel,  where  the  railway  burrows  under  the 
South  Downs,  rise  continuously  at  1  in  264,  so  we 
did  not  gather  speed  very  quickly ;  but,  with  the  regu- 
lator wide  open,  and  steam  only  5  Ibs.  or  so  below  the 
blowing-off  point,  the  effect  of  the  capacious  cylinders 
was  gradually  felt,  and,  at  a  constantly  growing  speed, 
we  traversed  the  deep  chalk  cuttings,  threaded  the 
short    Patcham    tunnel,    and    then    rushed    into    the 
obscurity  of  the  Clayton  tunnel  8  minutes  22  seconds 
from  the  start.    From  the  southern  portal  of  this  tunnel 
the   line   begins   to   descend,  and,  with  the  regulator 
no  longer  wide  open,  but  steam  cut  off  at  the  same 
point  as  before,  we  emerged  again  into  daylight  1  mile 
506  yards  further  on,  at  a  speed,  which  was  already 
fairly  high,  and  which  continued  to  increase  till  over 
70  miles  an  hour  was  reached  at  the  point  where  the 
next  ascent  is  encountered.     This  ascent  is  8  miles 
long,  nearly  all  at  1  in  264,  which  is  the  prevailing 
gradient  upon  the  Brighton  main  line,  and,  except 
where  the  Ouse  viaduct  is  crossed,  a  couple  of  miles 
beyond  Hayward's  Heath,   the  line  is  sheltered  by 
cuttings  or  woods,  which,  on  stormy  days  when  a 
strong  cross  wind  is  blowing,  are  of  much  assistance ; 
but  to-day   there  was  nothing  more   than  a  gentle 
following   wind.     Under   these   favourable   conditions 
the  engine  made  very  light  work  of  the  incline,  the 
last  6  miles  to  the  summit,  which  is  reached  at  the 
north  end  of  the  Balcombe  tunnel  taking  only  a  second 
or  two  over  6  minutes,  and  this  without  the  driver's 
opening  the  regulator  wide,  even  as  the  summit  was 
approached.     The  succeeding  almost  straight  descent 
past  Three  Bridges  to  Horley  produced  a  maximum 


264       RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

speed  of  just  over  74  miles  an  hour.  All  this  time  the 
remarkable  smoothness  of  motion  of  No.  422  was 
most  apparent.  All  engines  with  uncoupled  trailing 
wheels  are,  no  doubt,  inclined  to  run  smoothly,  but 
there  are  often  great  differences  in  this  respect  between 
engines  of  precisely  the  same  design,  and  in  this  engine 
the  ease  and  smoothness  of  the  running  were  quite 
remarkable. 

Earlswood,  half-way  up  the  long  bank  to  the 
Quarry  tunnel  summit,  and  29  miles  from  Brighton, 
was  passed  in  31  minutes  10  seconds  from  the  start. 
But  here  we  had  already  slowed  down,  for  in  the 
Redhill  tunnel,  a  little  further  on,  the  line  was  being 
relaid,  and  we  had  to  pass  through  this  tunnel  very 
slowly.  This  loss  of  impetus  taking  place  4  miles 
from  the  top  of  the  incline,  put  us  back  seriously,  and 
as  the  line  from  here  rises  at  about  1  in  200,  we  had 
naturally  not  fully  recovered  speed  when  we  ran  out 
of  the  Quarry  tunnel,  the  third  of  the  big  tunnels 
which  mark  the  three  summits  between  Brighton  and 
London.  From  here  the  18  miles  to  Victoria  are  a 
practically  continuous  descent,  but  our  troubles  were 
not  yet  at  an  end,  as,  though  we  had  reached  a  good 
speed  by  the  time  we  ran  on  to  the  South  Eastern  line 
at  Stoat's  Nest,  we  shortly  afterwards  encountered  a 
second  severe  slack  where  further  relaying  operations 
had  lately  been  carried  out,  and  the  line  was  not 
sufficiently  consolidated  to  bear  trains  running  at  the 
normal  speed.  The  total  loss  of  time  involved  by 
these  two  slacks  amounted  to  about  6i  minutes,  and 
though  the  line  continues  to  fall,  there  were  still 
various  checks  to  our  course,  which  prevented  us  from 
making  much  use  of  the  favourable  gradients.  Beyond 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST     265 

East  Croydon,  where  the  line  for  Victoria  leaves  the 
London  Bridge  line,  our  careful  driver  slackened  speed 
perceptibly  to  run  over  the  facing  points,  and  then, 
after  a  moderately  rapid  descent  as  far  as  Clapham 
Junction,  the  brakes  went  on  hard  to  reduce  speed 
to  quite  a  low  level  for  passing  over  the  very  sharp 
curve  at  Poupart's  Junction,  where  there  are  also 
facing  points,  and  the  line  turns  to  the  right  on  to  the 
viaduct,  which  leads  it  to  the  bridge  over  the  South 
Western  Railway.  At  Poupart's  Junction  there  were 
still  2  miles  to  go,  and,  with  less  than  2  minutes  left, 
it  was  clear  that  we  could  not  arrive  with  absolute 
punctuality.  Indeed,  we  actually  came  to  a  stand 
at  Victoria  in  62  minutes  12  seconds  from  Brighton, 
instead  of  the  hour  which  is  allowed ;  but  if  the 
6|  minutes  lost  by  the  two  permanent  way  slacks  are 
deducted,  less  than  56  minutes  are  left  for  the  run, 
which,  without  being  marvellous,  is  certainly  very 
respectable,  work. 

At  the  time  when  the  South  Eastern  and  London, 
Chatham  and  Dover  Railways  were  separate  concerns, 
there  was  no  county  where  there  were  greater  oppor- 
tunities for  railway  competition  than  in  Kent.  There 
was  hardly  a  place  of  the  least  importance,  except 
Folkestone,  which  could  not  be  reached  by  way  of 
either  of  these  railways,  and  both  had  secured  for 
themselves  quite  exceptional  facilities  for  reaching  the 
very  heart  of  London.  As  the  district  served  is  rich 
in  high-class  passenger  traffic,  and  the  lines  are  un- 
usually free  from  goods  trains,  there  was  some  reason 
for  expecting  that  the  two  railways  would  vie  with  one 
another  in  maintaining  an  exceptionally  convenient 
and  ample  passenger  service.  The  most  enthusiastic 


266        KAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

admirer  of  the  Kentish  lines  could  hardly  assert 
that  these  expectations  were  fulfilled.  A  capital  ex- 
penditure, large  even  in  comparison  with  the  inflated 
amount  that  all  British  railways  have  been  obliged 
to  spend,  left  both  companies  hard  up  for  money,  and 
unable  to  find  so  much  as  was  desirable  for  main- 
taining their  road  and  rolling  stock  at  that  pitch  of 
efficiency  to  which  we  are  accustomed  on  most  of  the 
leading  British  lines,  while  the  difficulties  of  working 
lines  so  complicated  tended  to  make  the  trains  both 
slow  and  unpunctual.  The  mere  fact  that  each  rail- 
way had  two  termini  in  London  added  immensely  to 
the  complication  of  working  the  London  traffic.  The 
peculiar  difficulties  to  which  the  configuration  of  the 
South  Eastern  line  into  Cannon  Street  and  Charing 
Cross  gave  rise,  can  hardly  be  over  estimated,  and, 
if  the  London,  Chatham,  and  Dover  was  rather  better 
off,  the  necessity  of  dividing  or  joining  up  a  great  many 
trains  at  Herne  Hill  was  a  fruitful  cause  of  delay.  In 
this  matter  of  their  London  termini  the  enterprise  of 
the  South  Eastern  and  London,  Chatham,  and  Dover 
Railways  has  probably  received  less  than  justice  at 
the  hands  of  the  travelling  public.  We  all  of  us  notice 
and  complain  about  the  delays  which  sometimes  occur 
in  getting  into  these  stations,  and  are  apt  to  forget 
the  other  aspect  of  the  question,  which  is  that  the 
railways  confer  a  considerable  benefit  upon  us  by 
taking  us  across  the  river  and  setting  us  down  in  one 
or  other  of  these  peculiarly  well  situated  termini, 
instead  of  landing  us,  as  they  might  quite  reasonably 
do,  somewhere  in  the  wilds  of  South  London,  and 
leaving  us  to  find  our  own  way  thence.  Besides  the 
difficulty  of  working  in  and  about  London,  there  are 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST     267 

so  many  places  on  both  lines,  too  important  to  pass 
by,  and  not  big  enough  to  be  served  by  trains  run 
exclusively  for  their  benefit,  that  the  number  of  stops, 
which  has  to  be  made,  prevents  most  of  the  trains  from 
attaining  any  great  speed.  Hampered  therefore,  as  the 
two  railways  were,  by  difficulties  of  working  on  the 
one  hand,  and  by  poverty  on  the  other,  the  train  service 
provided  neither  by  the  one  nor  the  other  met  with  much 
approbation  from  the  public,  nor  did  the  financial  results 
satisfy  the  shareholders.  Under  these  circumstances 
it  was  decided  to  strike  out  a  new  line,  and,  as  separate 
working  had  proved  a  failure,  to  see  what  joint  working 
would  effect.  In  1899,  therefore,  the  two  railways 
were  amalgamated  for  all  purposes  of  working,  the 
agreement  which  they  then  entered  into  being  the 
first  of  the  agreements  under  which,  by  the  conclusion 
of  alliances  between  two  or  more  companies,  the  country 
is  being  partitioned  afresh  and  all  competition  between 
the  members  of  each  alliance  is  being  frankly  and 
explicitly  eliminated.  To  say  that  the  amalgamation 
of  the  South  Eastern  and  London,  Chatham,  and 
Dover  Railways  has  been  an  unqualified  success  would 
be  impossible.  One  of  the  first  measures  which  the 
managing  committee  of  the  newly  christened  "  South 
Eastern  and  Chatham  Railway  "  had  to  take  was  to 
raise  a  great  deal  of  capital  to  be  laid  out  on  very 
necessary  widenings  and  improvements,  and  this 
expenditure,  coming  at  a  time  when  all  railways  were 
experiencing  some  diminution  in  their  prosperity, 
caused  the  financial  results  of  the  amalgamated  lines 
to  be  worse  than  when  the  two  were  worked  separately. 
Neither  has  the  pace  of  the  trains  been  appreciably 
mended,  though  their  punctuality  has  probably 


268        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

improved,  and  great  convenience  has  been  caused  by  the 
construction  of  junctions  between  the  two  main  lines, 
where  the  South  Eastern  crosses  the  London,  Chatham, 
and  Dover,  near  Chislehurst,  so  that  trains  for  either 
of  these  lines  can  start  from  any  of  the  termini  of  the 
amalgamated  companies.  The  advantage  of  this  became 
very  apparent,  when,  on  December  5,  1905,  a  most 
unfortunate  and  expensive  accident  occurred,  which 
for  some  time  made  it  impossible  for  Charing  Cross 
Station  to  be  used  at  all.  On  the  afternoon  of  that 
day  part  of  the  roof  of  that  station  fell  in.  The  roof 
was  undergoing  the  periodical  repairs  and  painting, 
and,  for  this  purpose,  a  staging  had  been  erected, 
which  added  considerably  to  the  weight  which  it  had 
to  bear.  Suddenly  one  of  the  iron  rods  which  braced 
the  roof  snapped,  thereby  subjecting  the  walls,  which 
supported  the  roof,  to  a  thrust  so  powerful  that,  before 
many  minutes  had  passed,  one  of  the  walls  collapsed 
and  brought  down  a  large  part  of  the  roof  with  it.  The 
cause  of  the  accident  was  a  faulty  weld  in  the  rod 
which  snapped,  a  flaw  which  it  was  impossible  to  dis- 
cover and  which  had  not  prevented  the  rod  from 
holding  the  roof  securely  for  more  than  40  years.  The 
station  had  to  be  closed  for  several  months  while  a 
new  roof  was  erected,  and  during  this  time  the  South 
Eastern  must  have  fully  realised  the  advantage  which 
its  amalgamation  with  the  London,  Chatham,  and 
Dover  gave  it  in  enabling  it  to  fall  back  upon  Victoria. 
The  new  roof,  of  the  ridge  and  furrow  type,  gives  the 
station  quite  a  new  and,  most  people  think,  improved 
appearance,  though,  even  now,  it  is  difficult  not  to 
regard  the  whole  station  and  the  bridge  leading  to  it 
as  a  blot  upon  what  might  be  one  of  the  finest  views 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    2G9 

in  London.  The  question,  which  was  raised  in  con- 
nection with  the  King  Edward  Memorial,  of  removing 
Charing  Cross  Station  to  the  south  side  of  the  river, 
and  building  a  new  road  bridge  in  place  of  the  existing 
bridge,  is  full  of  attraction.  Over  a  bridge  of  really 
adequate  width  a  station  south  of  the  river  would 
be  as  easy  of  access  as  the  present  station  ;  much 
more  space  could  probably  be  found  for  the  station, 
which  would  become  practically  part  of  the  South 
Western  terminus  at  Waterloo ;  and  this  would 
enable  far  more  useful  connections  than  at  present 
to  be  made  between  the  trains  of  the  two  com- 
panies. 

The  slowness  of  the  Continental  trains  to  and  from 
Dover  and  Folkestone  is  perhaps  the  least  creditable 
part  of  the  service  of  the  South  Eastern.  These  trains 
are  very  important,  with  fares  probably  the  highest 
in  the  world,  and  the  Tonbridge  line,  over  which  most 
of  them  run,  though  fairly  difficult  for  the  first  30  miles 
out  of  London,  does  not  present  any  very  formidable 
hindrances  to  high  speed.  The  4.30  p.m.  put  on  in 
July,  1913,  is  timed  to  perform  the  run  of  76|  miles 
from  Charing  Cross  to  Dover  Pier,  in  90  minutes, 
which  is  a  respectable,  though  not  a  brilliant,  timing, 
but  all  the  other  trains  are  slower,  often  considerably 
slower,  than  this.  The  impression  created  by  these 
mediocre  performances  is  the  more  unfortunate  for 
the  fact  that  the  trains  on  the  French  side  of  the 
Channel,  which  run  in  connection  with  those  of  the 
South  Eastern,  leave  less  to  be  desired  than  any  trains 
in  the  world.  The  stock  of  which  they  are  made  up 
is  at  least  as  good  as  that  of  which  the  British  trains 
are  composed,  the  speed  at  which  they  are  timed  is 


270        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

some  10  miles  an  hour  higher,  and  they  often  make  up 
time  as  well,  while  the  fares  are  much  lower  than  on 
the  South  Eastern. 

To  expect  the  little  South  Eastern  engines  to  hold 
their  own  against  the  big  new  4-6-2  engines,  which 
the  Nord  has  quite  lately  put  into  service,  would  be 
absurd,  but,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  newest 
South  Eastern  engines  are  always  hopelessly  outdone 
by  the  4-4-2  engines,  which  the  Nord  adopted  in 
1900,  the  relative  inefficiency  of  the  British  company 
seems  hardly  excusable.  I  was  once  coming  from 
Paris  to  London  by  the  morning  train  from  the  Gare 
du  Nord  which  was  being  worked  by  one  of  the  4-4-2 
engines,  and  we  were  somewhat  delayed  on  the  first 
stage  of  the  journey,  and  so  left  Abbeville  late.  The 
distance  from  Abbeville  to  Calais  Pier  is  75|  miles, 
and,  if  we  were  to  arrive  punctually,  it  was  necessary 
to  cover  this  distance  in  about  the  same  number  of 
minutes.  The  line  is  rather  a  difficult  one,  the  last 
45  miles  being  a  succession  of  sharp  ascents  and 
descents — it  is  quite  as  hard  as  the  South  Eastern  line 
from  London  to  Dover  via  Tonbridge — and  we  had 
very  nearly  300  tons  behind  the  tender.  But  without 
any  fuss  or  bother  the  French  driver  swept  us  up  the 
hills  rather  faster  than  usual,  and  when  we  stopped  at 
Calais,  after  a  start-to-stop  run  averaging  only  the 
smallest  shade  under  60  miles  an  hour,  it  appeared 
that  we  were  exactly  punctual.  It  would  be  interesting 
to  hear  the  comments  of  the  South  Eastern  drivers  on 
a  performance  of  this  kind.  I  think  they  would  be 
surprised  at  it.  And  yet,  with  a  little  energy  and 
some  rather  bigger  engines,  there  is  absolutely  no 
reason  why  trains  should  not  run  as  well  on  the  English 


KAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    271 

side  of  the  Channel  as  on  the  French.  Till  the  South 
Eastern  times  its  best  trains  between  London  and 
Dover  in  (at  most)  85  minutes,  and  makes  up  time  as 
well  when  the  trains  are  late,  it  will  not  be  shoulder- 
ing its  fair  share  of  the  burden  of  the  London-Paris 
service. 

If  the  South  Eastern  Continental  trains  are  not 
entirely  satisfactory,  matters  are  better  with  regard 
to  the  cross- Channel  steamers.  It  is  true  that  these 
vessels  are  not  so  big  as  is  desirable  in  the  interests  of 
the  passengers  in  rough  weather,  but  till  the  French 
harbours  are  improved  there  appear  to  be  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  employing  bigger  vessels.  There  is  no 
branch  of  engineering  which  is  more  thoroughly  under- 
stood in  Great  Britain  than  the  construction  of  swift 
and  seaworthy  steamers  for  channel  crossings  and 
short-distance  voyages  of  all  kinds,  and  the  South 
Eastern,  by  its  prompt  appreciation  of  the  advan- 
tages and  possibilities  of  the  steam  turbine,  did  its 
best  to  provide  vessels  worthy  of  the  importance  of 
the  service  which  it  carries  on.  No  steamers  could, 
of  course,  perform  with  absolute  regularity  so  diffi- 
cult a  voyage  as  that  across  the  Channel,  but, 
when  the  conditions  are  favourable,  it  is  seldom 
indeed  that  any  delay  can  be  laid  to  the  charge  of 
the  turbines. 

Dover,  being  situated  at  the  very  corner  of  England 
at  the  nearest  point  to  the  Continent,  has  in  some 
respects  great  natural  advantages  as  a  naval  and  ship- 
ping centre  and  a  point  of  embarkation.  But  nature 
has  provided  little  shelter,  and  the  very  narrowness 
of  the  Channel  increases  the  difficulties  of  navigation 
due  to  the  tides  and  winds.  In  order  fully  to  utilise 


272        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

Dover  it  was  necessary  to  provide  artificial  shelter 
on  a  large  scale.  For  many  years  the  principal  shelter 
was  that  given  by  the  Admiralty  Pier,  and  this  was 
quite  inadequate  to  make  Dover  a  place  of  any  great 
importance  for  shipping.  But,  fortunately  for  the 
South  Eastern,  the  Admiralty  realised  the  advantages 
which  the  position  affords,  and,  after  many  years' 
arduous  work,  the  enormous  harbour  of  refuge  was 
completed,  which,  enclosing  as  it  does,  about  a  square 
mile  of  sea,  provides  adequate  shelter  for  a  fleet  of 
any  size.  Arrangements  were,  at  the  same  time,  made 
to  enable  large  liners  to  come  alongside,  and  Dover 
now  possesses  all  the  necessary  qualifications  for  a 
first-class  naval  and  shipping  centre. 

Now  that,  after  innumerable  announcements  of 
the  impending  development  of  the  Kent  coalfield,  pits 
have  actually  been  sunk,  and  operations  started,  it 
may  take  very  few  years  to  effect  a  great  change  in 
the  character  of  the  extreme  south-east  corner  of 
England,  but  the  present  is  too  early  to  found  any 
confident  hopes  upon  what  the  results  of  the  working 
of  Kent  coal  are  likely  to  be. 

Whether  in  years  to  come  Dover  will  acquire 
added  fame  as  the  starting-point  of  a  Channel  tunnel 
cannot  be  foreseen,  though  the  prospects  of  a  tunnel 
have  lately  taken  a  favourable  turn.  If  it  is  decided 
to  construct  a  tunnel  between  England  and  France, 
it  is  almost  certain  that  the  English  end  of  it  will  be 
quite  close  to  Dover.  This  question  of  a  tunnel  is 
remarkably  alluring  to  many  minds,  and  at  intervals 
during  the  last  hundred  years  more  or  less  elaborately 
thought  out  proposals  have  been  brought  forward  for 
joining  the  two  countries  by  this  means.  The  geological 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    273 

formation  of  the  bed  of  the  Channel  is  believed 
to  be  fairly  well  known,  and  it  is  not  thought  that 
any  very  great  engineering  difficulties  would  be  met 
with  in  constructing  a  tunnel.  The  enormous  pro- 
gress which  had  been  made  in  recent  years  in  the 
practical  application  of  electricity  would,  of  course, 
greatly  facilitate  both  the  construction  of  a  tunnel 
and  its  working  when  constructed,  and  if,  before 
electricity  was  available,  engineers  were  confident  of 
their  ability  to  make  and  work  a  tunnel,  there  would 
now  appear  to  be  no  doubt  on  that  score,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  nothing  of  the  kind  on  a  scale  in  the 
least  approaching  such  magnitude  has  ever  yet  been 
attempted.  Besides  the  various  projects  for  a  tunnel, 
the  construction  of  different  kinds  of  bridges  has  been 
suggested  ;  the  difficulties  connected  with  all  these 
projects  have,  however,  appeared  on  examination  to 
be  greater  than  those  involved  in  the  construction  of 
a  tunnel.  Lastly,  the  idea  of  constructing  large  ferry 
boats,  which  would  transport  whole  trains  across  the 
Channel,  has  found  many  advocates  ;  though  the  ferry 
boats  would  not  diminish  the  horrors  of  sea-sickness, 
they  would  certainly  do  away  with  the  present  intoler- 
able inconvenience  of  changing  into  and  off  a  boat, 
with  the  attendant  scramble  for  places  and  other 
unpleasant  incidents  inseparable  from  these  changes. 
Even  the  introduction  of  a  service  of  ferry  boats, 
however,  would  not  be  particularly  easy  to  arrange,  if 
for  no  other  reason  than  the  fact  that  the  tides  in  the 
Channel  rise  and  fall  some  20  feet,  so  that  the  diffi- 
culties of  running  the  trains  on  and  off  the  ferry  boats 
might  be  considerable.  But  the  very  serious  delays 
and  discomforts  arising  from  the  present  steamboat 

T 


274        RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

crossings  must  act  as  a  continual  inducement  to  in- 
ventive people  to  find  some  means  of  doing  away 
with  them. 

As  regards  delays,  it  sometimes  seems  extremely 
doubtful  whether  everything  is  done  which,  even 
under  existing  conditions,  could  be  done,  to  minimise 
them.  I  can  myself  hardly  remember  an  occasion 
when  any  train  in  which  I  have  travelled  between 
London  and  Dover  or  Folkestone  has  reached  its 
destination  punctually.  A  good  deal  of  the  unpunc- 
tuality  of  the  up  trains  appears  to  be  due  to  the  length 
of  time  which  elapses  between  the  arrival  of  the 
steamers  and  the  departure  of  the  trains.  As  the 
luggage  is  carried  in  containers,  which  are  quickly 
and  easily  transferred  from  the  steamer  to  the  wheels 
on  which  they  run  up  to  London,  there  is  no  particular 
reason  why  a  great  deal  of  time  should  be  wanted  for 
the  transfer.  And  too  often,  when  the  train  at  last 
starts,  yet  more  time  is  lost  on  the  already  slowly 
timed  journey  up  to  London,  while  it  is,  I  believe, 
almost  unknown  for  any  lost  time  to  be  regained,  as 
is  almost  always  done  on  the  French  side  if  the  train 
is  late.  When  the  Nord,  as  happened  on  one  of  my 
latest  journeys,  had  run  the  two  stages  of  81|-  miles 
from  Calais  to  Amiens,  and  102  miles  thence  to  Calais 
Town  in  86  and  108  minutes  respectively,  it  was 
hardly  inspiring  to  find  the  South  Eastern  train  losing 
5  minutes  for  no  perceptible  reason  on  the  101  minutes 
which  it  is  given  for  the  78  miles  or  so  from  Dover 
Town  to  Victoria. 

With  the  completion  of  Dover  harbour,  work  has 
been  begun  upon  a  new  station,  to  be  used  instead  of 
the  Admiralty  Pier  Station,  from  the  inadequacy  of 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    275 

which  cross-Channel  passengers  have  so  long  suffered. 
The  new  station  is  to  be  built  out  into  the  harbour  on 
reclaimed  land  at  the  landward  end  of  the  Admiralty 
Pier,  and,  with  the  wide  platforms  and  the  adequate 
shelter  which  are  promised,  should  remove  what  has 
up  to  now  been  a  serious  reproach  upon  the  conduct 
of  the  Continental  traffic.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
among  other  things  the  new  station  will  contain  a 
refreshment  hall  of  adequate  size,  which  will  not  be 
put  to  shame  by  the  spacious  buffet  at  Calais,  and  that 
the  quality  of  the  refreshments  provided  will  equal 
the  high  standard  attained  by  the  French. 

While  these  improvements  are  proceeding  on  the 
English  side  of  the  Channel,  it  is  rumoured  that  the 
French  authorities  are  not  remaining  idle.  The  newest 
turbine  steamers,  which  have  been  put  on  the  Channel 
services,  though  highly  efficient  vessels,  are,  as  already 
remarked,  rather  small.  It  -is  believed  that  such 
improvements  are  contemplated  in  the  harbours  at 
Calais  and  Boulogne  as  will  make  it  possible  to  employ 
much  larger  and  more  powerful  vessels,  which  will 
be  not  nearly  so  responsive  to  the  bufferings  of  the 
winds  and  waves  as  are  those  now  in  use.  With  such 
steamers,  and  with  improved  means  of  embarkation 
and  disembarkation,  it  should  be  possible  for  the  Paris 
train  to  leave  Calais  1|  hours  after  the  London  train 
has  reached  Dover.  The  Nord  has  long  been  ready 
to  run  the  185  miles  from  Calais  to  Paris  in  3  hours. 
Its  new  4-6-2  engines  should  be  capable  of  more 
than  this,  even  with  400  tons  behind  the  tender.  The 
South  Eastern  already  having  a  train  from  London 
to  Dover  in  90  minutes,  Paris  may,  in  a  few  years' 
time,  be  not  more  than  6  hours  from  London. 


276        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

Though  owing  to  the  length  of  the  Channel  crossing, 
the  Newhaven-Dieppe  route  is  never  likely  to  become 
a  serious  rival  of  the  routes  to  France  via  Dover  or 
Folkestone,  considerable  improvements  have  just  been 
made  on  this  route,  and  it  is  understood  that  others 
are  about  to  follow.  Some  of  the  new  turbine  steamers 
are  capable  of  performing  the  crossing  well  under  3 
hours,  and  the  French  State,  which  has  now  bought 
up  what  used  to  be  the  Chemin  de  Fer  de  1' Quest, 
has  lately  reconstructed  one  of  the  lines  between 
Dieppe  and  Paris  in  such  a  manner  that  it  will  be 
suitable  for  express  traffic  (which  was  not  formerly 
the  case),  thereby  making  available  a  route  some  20 
miles  shorter  than  the  line  via  Rouen.  A  train  ferry, 
too,  has  lately  been  talked  of  for  the  Newhaven- 
Dieppe  route,  and  it  is  just  possible,  though  not  very 
likely,  that  this  may  shortly  become  an  accomplished 
fact.  A  service  in  7  hours,  or  less,  by  this  route  will 
be  one  of  the  possibilities  of  the  not  very  remote 
future. 

The  service  to  Berlin  and  elsewhere,  via  Flushing, 
is  no  doubt  of  much  less  value  to  the  South  Eastern 
than  are  the  services  to  France,  and,  although  fairly 
conveniently  arranged,  has,  on  the  Continent,  always 
been  more  of  a  glorified  cross-country  service  than 
anything  else.  But  there  are  signs  that  in  the  future 
the  railways  are  going  to  pay  more  attention  to  this 
route.  For  some  time  now  the  night  service  has  run 
by  way  of  Folkestone,  instead  of  Queenboro',  and  this, 
together  with  improvements  in  the  trains  on  the 
Continent,  has  brought  a  good  many  of  the  big  German 
towns  appreciably  nearer  to  London.  There  is  no 
part  of  the  world  better  suited  than  North  Germany 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    277 

for  high-speed  long-distance  travel,  on  account  of  the 
considerable  distances  which  have  to  be  covered,  and 
the  flatness  of  the  country  ;  and  it  looks  as  though 
the  Prussian  State  Railways  were,  somewhat  tardily 
it  is  true,  awaking  to  the  requirements  of  the  situation. 
It  is  a  commonplace  that  the  capital,  which  has 
been  laid  out  on  British  lines,  is  much  greater  pro- 
portionally than  that  which  has  been  laid  out  on  any 
other  railways  in  the  world.  The  expenditure  per 
mile  of  the  South  Eastern  and  Chatham  has  been 
nearly  £100,000,  of  the  London,  Brighton,  and  South 
Coast  about  £67,000.  Various  reasons  are  given  to 
account  for  the  great  first  cost  of  the  railways.  British 
landowners  are  said  to  have  demanded  exorbitant 
prices  for  their  land  ;  legal  expenses  are  said  to  have 
been  excessive.  Without  being  concerned  to  examine 
these  allegations,  which  are  certainly  to  some  extent 
true,  we  must  not  forget,  when  complaint  is  made  of 
the  very  large  amount  per  mile  which  British  railways 
have  cost,  that  a  mile  of  railway  in  Great  Britain  is, 
on  an  average,  a  much  more  valuable  thing  than  a 
mile  of  railway  in  any  other  country.  There  is  no 
country  in  the  world  where,  in  proportion  to  the 
mileage,  there  is  so  much  double,  and  even  quadruple 
line,  and,  when  the  cost  per  mile  is  spoken  of,  a  mile 
only  counts  as  a  mile,  however  many  lines  of  rails  there 
may  be  running  side  by  side  of  each  other.  British 
railways,  again,  are  exceptionally  well  provided  with 
rolling  stock,  the  stations  are  unusually  numerous, 
the  signalling  arrangements  are  adequate  for  coping 
with  a  very  rapid  succession  of  trains,  sharp  curves 
and  excessively  steep  gradients  have  generally  been 
avoided,  there  are  few  level  crossings,  the  lines  are 


278        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

enclosed  in  the  most  elaborate  and  expensive  manner, 
and  the  permanent  way  of  all  the  big  companies  is 
tolerable,  of  some  really  good.  So,  if  British  railways 
have  cost  a  great  deal  (nearly  £50,000  a  mile  on  an 
average)  to  build  and  equip,  they  have,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  very  large  earning  capacity,  and,  owing  to 
the  generally  high  (if  somewhat  varying)  standard  of 
their  equipment,  they  are,  all  things  considered,  cheap 
to  work.  The  absence  of  anything  approaching  com- 
plete statistics  makes  it,  indeed,  difficult  to  get  a  very 
clear  idea  of  what  the  results  really  are  which  the 
railways  achieve,  but  there  is  hardly  any  doubt  that, 
taking  one  thing  with  another,  they  give  their  customers 
more  for  their  money  than  do  those  of  any  other 
country. 

Eailways,  whose  capital  expenditure  has  been  small, 
may  achieve  good  results  on  a  small  volume  of  traffic 
economically  conducted,  but,  for  British  railways, 
which  have  spent  so  much  capital,  and  have  been  built 
to  cope  with  traffic  on  a  large  scale,  to  have  any  chance 
of  paying  well,  it  is  essential  that  their  turnover  should 
be  very  large.  This  being  so,  it  often  appears  as 
though  too  much  attention  were  given  to  keeping 
down  the  ratio  of  working  expenses  to  gross  receipts, 
while  not  enough  was  devoted  to  endeavouring  to  secure 
the  highest  possible  ratio  of  net  receipts  to  paid  up 
capital.  The  ratio  of  working  expenses  to  gross 
receipts  is,  on  most  British  lines,  something  over 
60  per  cent.,  and  varies  comparatively  little  between 
one  line  and  another.  Yet  some  lines  pay  much  better 
than  others,  since  this  ratio  is  the  result  of  turnovers 
widely  different  in  proportion  to  the  capital  involved. 

Thick  as  the  traffic  already  is  in  Great  Britain, 


EAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    279 

there  are  few  existing  lines  which  could  not  accom- 
modate a  great  deal  more  than  they  actually  do  accom- 
modate, and,  if  a  considerably  increased  volume  of 
traffic  could  be  secured,  it  would  not  matter  if  the 
ratio  of  working  expenses  to  gross  receipts  did  go  up. 
A  turnover  of  £1,200,000,  with  working  expenses  at 
70  per  cent.,  produces  the  same  profit  as  a  turnover  of 
£1,000,000,  with  working  expenses  at  64  per  cent. 
Under  ordinary  circumstances,  moreover,  the  greater 
the  total  volume  of  traffic,  the  cheaper  it  is  to  work. 
In  many  places,  where  existing  lines  are  capable  of 
carrying  more  traffic  than  they  now  have  to  deal  with, 
it  might  be  very  well  worth  while  reducing  charges 
and  spending  money  in  giving  increased  facilities  in 
order  to  secure  a  greater  turnover. 

The  theory  of  the  financing  of  public  companies, 
like  railway  companies,  is  that  the  capital  consists 
partly  of  debentures  (which  are  technically  loans)  and 
partly  of  shares.  The  debenture-holders  receive 
interest  at  a  fixed  rate  upon  their  holdings,  and,  so 
long  as  this  is  forthcoming,  are  not  entitled  to  inter- 
fere in  any  way  in  the  management  of  the  company, 
which  is  the  property  of  the  holders  of  the  shares. 
Ordinary  shares  are  moderately  speculative  invest- 
ments, and,  as  such,  sometimes  fail  to  satisfy  either 
those  persons,  who  desire  above  all  things  a  regular 
return  upon  their  money,  or  those  who  desire  shares, 
the  value  of  which  may  fluctuate  sharply.  Under 
these  circumstances  a  practice  arose  of  dividing  each 
ordinary  share  into  two  parts,  one  of  which  (preferred 
ordinary  share)  was  to  receive  the  whole  of  the  dividend 
due  upon  the  undivided  share  up  to  so  or  so  much 
per  cent.,  and  the  other  (deferred  ordinary  share) 


280        RAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

anything  that  might  be  available  beyond  the  dividend 
upon  the  preferred  share.  The  stability  of  the  pre- 
ferred share  was  thus  assimilated  to  that  of  debentures, 
while  most  of  the  speculativeness  attached  to  the 
undivided  shares  was  transferred,  and  in  a  higher 
degree,  to  the  deferred  shares.  An  objection  to  stock 
splitting  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  welfare  of  the 
company  is  that,  if  the  value  of  the  deferred  shares 
falls  very  low,  it  is  possible  for  any  one,  by  the  invest- 
ment of  a  comparatively  small  amount  of  capital  in 
these  shares  to  acquire  a  disproportionately  large 
measure  of  the  controlling  influence,  which  the  voting 
power  attached  to  these  deferred  shares  confers  on 
their  possessor  ;  but  the  risk  of  this  is  considerably 
diminished  by  the  fact  that  it  is  always  arranged  that 
the  holder  of  a  large  block  of  shares  has  proportionately 
much  fewer  votes  than  would  attach  to  the  same 
holding  distributed  among  a  number  of  small  in- 
vestors. 

In  the  case  of  most  British  railways  the  nominal 
capital  represents  shares  which  have  been  paid  for,  or 
issued  in  return  for  some  sort  of  valuable  consideration, 
but,  in  a  few  cases,  notably  that  of  the  Midland,  the 
capital  has  nominally  been  largely  increased  (under 
Parliamentary  sanction)  by  dividing  £100  shares  into 
two  parts,  and  calling  each  of  the  parts  a  £100  share, 
or  by  carrying  out  some  analogous  financial  operation. 
There  can,  of  course,  be  no  secrecy  or  illegality  in  any 
of  these  transactions,  but  nevertheless,  complaints  are 
sometimes  made  of  them  on  the  score  that  they  tend 
to  obscure  the  real  financial  position  of  a  company  and 
give  it  an  opportunity  of  pretending  that  it  is  less 
prosperous  than  is  in  fact  the  case. 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    281 

The  interest  which  the  great  body  of  railway  pro- 
prietors take  in  the  railways,  in  which  they  hold  shares, 
is  probably  confined  to  the  dividends  which  they 
receive,  and  to  the  prices  which  their  holdings  will 
fetch  on  the  Stock  Exchange.  It  must  be  confessed 
that  any  shareholder  desiring  to  interest  himself  beyond 
this  point  in  his  railway  has  not,  up  to  the  present 
time,  enjoyed  great  facilities  for  so  doing.  Beyond 
the  dividends  and  the  very  perfunctory  figures  given 
in  the  published  reports,  there  are,  or  have  been  up  to 
now,  almost  no  means  of  judging  of  the  success  or 
otherwise  of  a  railway's  policy.  In  consequence  of 
the  new  Act  of  Parliament  dealing  with  railway  com- 
panies' accounts  more  detailed  information  will  be 
available  in  future. 

The  Great  Eastern  Railway,  though  in  the  happy 
position  of  having  its  own  district  largely  to  itself,  has 
certain  disadvantages  to  cope  with,  which  make  it  a 
difficult  line  to  work  satisfactorily.  It  has  a  large 
suburban  traffic  into  London  in  the  morning  and  out 
of  London  at  night,  almost  all  of  which,  in  either  direc- 
tion, has  to  be  accommodated  within  a  comparatively 
short  space  of  time,  it  serves  no  provincial  towns  of 
first-rate  importance,  and  there  is  a  complicated  net- 
work of  cross-country  lines,  with  small  traffic,  to  be 
provided  for  ;  the  suburban  traffic  is  conducted  at 
extremely  low  fares,  though  its  existence  has  neces- 
sitated a  large  expenditure  of  money  to  provide  the 
requisite  accommodation,  both  as  regards  running  lines 
and  terminal  facilities  ;  owing  to  the  absence  of  any 
very  large  centre  of  population  besides  London,  the 
company  has  nowhere  a  steady  flow  of  really  profitable 
traffic — passenger  or  goods — to  make  up  for  the  low 


282        EAILWAYS  OF  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

receipts  of  the  numerous  single  lines  across  country, 
and  in  consequence  of  the  railway's  running  through 
the  East  End  of  London  and  the  works  being  situated 
there,  the  Great  Eastern  suffers  severely  from  the 
exactions  of  the  local  authorities  where  the  rates  have 
reached  the  highest  level. 

For  a  good  many  years  the  railways  have  raised  a 
bitter  cry  against  the  local  taxation  which  they  are 
called  upon  to  bear.  Time  after  time  at  the  General 
Meetings  have  the  Chairmen  drawn  attention  to  the 
enormous  sums  which  the  railways  have  each  year  to 
pay  away  in  rates,  and  innumerable  instances  have 
been  given  of  cases  in  which  the  payments  exacted 
from  the  railways  in  various  localities  are  excessive  to 
the  point  of  being  grotesque.  That  the  present  manner 
of  rating  railways  leaves  much  to  be  desired  is  certain, 
though  it  is  doubtless  by  no  means  the  only  parti- 
cular in  which  the  British  rating  system  is  defective. 
It  is  a  question  whether  railways  ought  to  be  made 
to  contribute  to  local  taxation  at  all.  They  are,  in 
the  fullest  sense  of  the  term,  national  necessities- 
necessary  for  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  for  practically 
every  member  of  the  population.  Any  tax  levied  upon 
railways  is  indirectly  a  tax  upon  travel  and  transport, 
and,  if  levied  at  all,  should  certainly  be  levied  by  the 
Government,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  bear  equally 
on  all  railways,  and  to  benefit  all  parts  of  the  country 
equally.  But  what  actually  happens  is  that  the  various 
local  authorities  levy  rates  upon  the  railways  (according 
to  the  excessive  rateable  value  assigned  to  them)  very 
much  as  they  do  upon  other  property  lying  within 
their  districts  ;  in  some  places  the  rates  are  much 
higher  than  in  others,  and  in  some  the  rateable  value 


EAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    283 

of  the  railways  is  much  greater,  in  proportion  to  the 
total  rateable  value,  than  it  is  in  others.  Local  rates 
levied  upon  railways  being,  as  already  remarked,  an 
indirect  tax  upon  travel  and  transport,  to  which  every 
one  must  contribute,  those  places  where  much  railway 
line  exists,  and  where  the  rates  are  high,  are  unfairly 
favoured  as  against  those  where  little  railway  line 
exists  and  the  rates  are  low,  which  not  only  receive 
comparatively  little  contribution  from  the  railways  to 
their  expenditure,  but  also  get  less  railway  facilities. 

The  rates  which  the  railways  have  to  pay  form  so 
large  a  part  of  the  total  local  revenue  of  the  country 
that  it  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  dispense  with 
them.  Otherwise  the  fairest  arrangement  would  pro- 
bably be  to  excuse  the  railways  from  paying  rates  at 
all,  and  to  arrange  that  they  should  make  a  corre- 
sponding reduction  in  their  charges.  Failing  this, 
some  definite  proportion  of  the  gross  or  net  earnings 
of  the  railways  might  be  collected  by  the  Revenue 
Authorities,  and  distributed  to  the  different  local 
authorities,  proportionally  to  the  population  of  their 
districts.  Unfortunately,  so  many  people,  including 
influential  shareholders  in,  and  customers  of,  the  rail- 
ways, appear  to  find  the  power  of  the  local  authorities 
to  levy  heavy  rates  upon  the  railway  companies  so 
very  convenient  to  themselves  that  it  would  be  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  rouse  any  strong  public  feeling 
against  the  existing  system,  in  spite  of  the  abuses  to 
which  it  gives  rise. 

Railways  have  almost  all  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  their  short-distance  suburban  passenger  traffic  is 
more  trouble  than  it  is  worth.  Such  lines  as  they 
possess  they  must  continue  to  work,  and  work  to  the 


284        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

best  advantage  they  can,  but  only  under  very  excep- 
tional circumstances  do  the  railways  now  seek  to  extend 
the  field  of  their  suburban  operations.  The  Great 
Eastern,  therefore,  though  making  the  best  of  a  bad 
job,  and  bringing  to  bear  much  resource  towards 
solving  the  different  problems  which  are  constantly 
presenting  themselves  owing  to  the  growth  of  the 
suburbs  which  it  serves,  probably  does  not  regard  its 
suburban  traffic  with  any  enthusiasm.  But,  enthu- 
siastic or  not,  it  has  to  provide  transport  for  the  densely 
packed  masses  of  people  which  populate  the  urban 
and  suburban  districts  through  which  its  lines  pass, 
and  make  the  total  of  passengers  travelling  by  the 
Great  Eastern  each  year  greater  than  the  numbers 
transported  by  any  other  company.  The  quickest 
possible  succession  of  trains  as  long  as  the  platforms 
will  take,  composed  of  carriages  seating  six  a  side,  is  at 
some  times  of  the  day  barely  sufficient  for  the  crowds 
of  people,  who  use  the  line.  But  when  all  is  said  and 
done  the  Great  Eastern  would  probably  be  quite  as 
well  off  if  it  had  never  carried  a  single  suburban  pas- 
senger. Far  more  profitable  must  be  the  consider- 
able number  of  season-ticket  holders  who,  living  in 
the  country,  outside  the  suburban  area,  are  constantly 
travelling  to  and  from  their  places  of  business  in  the 
City,  to  which  the  Great  Eastern,  landing  them  at 
Liverpool  Street,  gives  the  readiest  possible  means  of 
access.  It  would  be  interesting  to  take  a  poll  of 
the  City  men,  who  live  out  of  London,  and  ascertain 
how  many  make  use  of  the  Great  Eastern  for  getting 
up  and  down,  as  compared  with  the  numbers  who  live 
on  other  systems.  The  clients  of  the  Great  Eastern 
would  certainly  make  a  goodly  showing. 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    285 

Liverpool  Street,  although  conveniently  situated  for 
City  passengers,  is  disadvantageously  placed  for  the 
purposes  of  most  other  people.  It  is  a  long  way  from 
the  chief  residential  districts,  and  it  is  often  very  diffi- 
cult of  access,  both  on  account  of  the  congestion  of 
the  narrow  streets  of  the  City,  and  of  the  small  space 
available  for  vehicles  in  the  yard  of  the  station  itself. 
The  Underground  Railway,  too,  reaches  it  by  a  route 
which  is  very  circuitous.  Under  these  circumstances 
it  is  not  surprising  that  the  Great  Eastern  gave  the 
Central  London  Tube  every  encouragement  to  carry 
on  its  line  to  Liverpool  Street.  The  extension  of  this 
tube  to  Liverpool  Street  has  provided  a  rapid  and  easy 
means  of  access  from  the  best  part  of  London,  which 
is  bound  to  have  a  most  favourable  influence  on  the 
passenger  traffic  of  the  Great  Eastern,  and,  by  making 
it  easy  for  people  to  reach  Liverpool  Street  below 
ground,  will  no  doubt  encourage  them  to  send  their 
luggage  on  ahead,  and  avoid  suffering  from,  and  adding 
to,  the  congestion  of  the  streets,  which,  in  early  August 
and  at  other  busy  times  of  the  year,  makes  the  approach 
to  Liverpool  Street  in  any  kind  of  road  vehicle  an 
experience  from  which  the  hardiest  are  inclined  to 
shrink. 

The  most  profitable  part  of  the  Great  Eastern's 
passenger  traffic  is  the  summer  traffic  to  and  from 
the  numerous  seaside  places  on  the  system.  To  realise 
the  importance  which  the  Great  Eastern  attaches  to 
Cromer  and  Yarmouth  at  this  time  of  year,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  compare  the  summer  train  service 
to  these  places  with  that  provided  during  the  rest  of 
the  year.  Cromer  and  Yarmouth  are  both  of  them 
served  by  trains  run  specially  for  the  summer  visitors, 


286        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

and  performing  the  journey  in  half  an  hour  less  time 
than  the  best  winter  trains,  the  Yarmouth  train  not 
stopping  at  all  en  route,  and  the  Cromer  train  stopping 
only  at  North  Walsham.  It  is  apparently  for  these 
summer  trains  alone  that  the  Great  Eastern  has  laid 
down  its  water  troughs,  for  during  the  rest  of  the  year 
there  is  no  train  that  runs  more  than  about  70  miles 
without  stopping.  Though  Cromer  and  Yarmouth  are 
the  most  important  of  the  Great  Eastern's  seaside 
places,  there  must  be  nearly  a  score  of  others,  all  of 
which  are  given  carefully  planned  connections  with 
London,  and  contribute  very  sensibly  to  the  receipts 
of  the  railway. 

All  this  seaside  traffic  being  almost  entirely  third- 
class  traffic,  it  sometimes  happens  that  such  first-class 
passengers  as  there  may  be  do  not  receive  all  the  con- 
sideration they  would  like.  One  Sunday  not  long  ago 
the  evening  express  from  Cromer,  so  far  as  a  hasty 
inspection  could  reveal,  was  entirely  made  up  of  dining- 
cars  and  third-class  bogie  carriages  of  the  latest  pattern, 
except  for  the  solitary  first-class  carriage  in  the  train  ; 
this  was  a  6-wheeler,  and  one  of  those  in  which  the 
economically-minded  designer  has,  by  rearranging  or 
omitting  the  usual  arm-rests,  endeavoured  to  cram  an 
extra  person  into  each  side.  To  have  paid  a  considerable 
number  of  shillings  beyond  the  third-class  fare  to  obtain 
the  privilege  of  travelling  in  this  vehicle,  exactly  above 
one  of  the  axles  which  hammered  heavily  over  the 
rail- joints,  is  an  investment  which  I  cannot  help 
regretting. 

If  in  1911  the  losses  caused  by  the  railway  strike 
were  off-set  by  the  remarkably  fine  weather  of  that 
summer,  there  was  in  1912  no  similar  compensation 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    287 

in  the  summer  for  the  losses  due  to  the  coal  strike, 
which  took  place  in  the  spring.  Very  heavy  and  con- 
tinuous rains  throughout  August  deterred  people  from 
going  away  from  home,  ruined  a  great  part  of  the 
harvest,  and  in  many  parts  of  the  country  actually 
finished  by  rendering  the  railway  lines  impassable  and 
causing  the  complete  suspension  of  traffic.  No  railway 
suffered  more  severely  than  the  Great  Eastern.  East 
Anglia,  usually  the  driest  part  of  England,  was  visited 
by  an  abnormal  succession  of  heavy  rains,  culminating 
on  the  26th  of  August  in  a  downpour  which,  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Norwich,  amounted  to  6  inches  or  a 
little  more  in  the  course  of  12  hours.  In  consequence 
of  this  a  great  many  of  the  railway  lines  were  flooded, 
and  some  actually  washed  away,  and  Norwich  itself 
for  a  short  time  could  not  be  reached  by  rail  at  all. 
The  damage  to  the  railway  lines  was  so  serious  that  it 
was  many  days  before  some  of  them  could  be  reopened, 
and  during  all  this  time  the  Great  Eastern  was  losing 
a  great  part  of  its  holiday  traffic,  upon  which  it  is  more 
dependent  than  perhaps  any  other  British  company. 

Norwich  is  much  the  biggest  town,  of  which  the 
Great  Eastern  gets  the  whole  passenger  traffic  to  and 
from  London.  It  is,  too,  much  the  largest  town  in 
East  Anglia,  and,  as  it  is  only  115  miles  from  London, 
by  the  shorter  route  via  Colchester,  it  must  be  capable 
of  providing,  at  some  convenient  hour,  a  full  train- 
load  of  passengers  in  each  direction  daily.  As  it  is,  it 
cannot  be  said  that  Norwich  is  well  treated ;  except 
for  one  down  train  (to  Norwich,  Trowse,  114  miles), 
from  July  to  September  inclusive,  there  is  no  train 
which  performs  the  journey  without  a  stop,  and  most 
of  the  trains  stop  so  often  that  they  can  hardly  be 


288        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

regarded  as  expresses  at  all.  Except  for  one  or  two 
extra  trains  on  certain  days  of  the  week,  there  is  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  year  only  one  train  in  either 
direction  which  takes  appreciably  less  than  3  hours 
over  the  journey,  and  there  are  none  at  all  in  so  little 
as  21-  hours.  The  Chairman  of  the  Company  told  the 
shareholders  a  few  years  ago  that  the  permanent  way 
was  rapidly  being  brought  to  a  condition  of  great  per- 
fection, which  condition  is  presumably  already  attained 
on  the  principal  main  lines  ;  and,  although  there  are 
four  or  five  places  where  certain  reductions  of  speed 
must  be  made  for  purposes  of  safety,  it  would  be  quite 
possible  for  one  of  the  ordinary  4-4-0  engines  to 
run  a  train  weighing  (exclusive  of  engine  and  tender) 
180  tons  or  so  in  either  direction  between  Norwich 
(Thorpe)  and  Liverpool  Street  in  the  even  2  hours.* 
This  is  one  of  those  improvements  which  are  crying 
aloud  to  be  made  on  almost  all  the  railways  in  Great 
Britain.  Everything  is  ready  for  great  accelerations 
— the  road,  the  signals,  the  engines,  the  brakes,  the 
carriages,  and  the  people  to  fill  them.  Of  the  benefit 
to  the  public,  which  a  great  reduction  in  the  time  spent 
in  travelling  would  bring,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

The  Continental  service  of  the  Great  Eastern,  in 
so  far  as  it  competes  with  that  of  the  South  Eastern, 
is  handicapped,  as  regards  London  passengers,  by  the 
fact  that  Victoria  is  for  most  people  much  more  acces- 
sible than  Liverpool  Street.  But,  though  the  Great 

*  One  day,  a  year  or  two  ago,  No.  1813,  a  4-4-0,  ran  from  Norwich 
(Thorpe)  to  Ipswich  (46£  miles)  start-to-stop,  in  50  minutes,  with  a  train 
of  quite  200  tons.  If  the  train  had  not  stopped  at  Ipswich,  the  time  of 
passing  would  have  been  about  49  minutes  from  the  start,  or  not  more 
than  3  minutes  behind  the  timing,  which  a  2 -hours'  run  to  Liverpool 
Street  would  necessitate. 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    289 

Eastern  takes  a  great  deal  of  pains  to  attract  passengers 
to  and  from  London,  it  probably  relies  more  upon 
those  from  the  north  of  England  and  the  Midlands,  for 
whom  it  runs  through  carriages  to  Harwich  from  many 
of  the  most  important  towns. 

Though  the  best  friend  of  the  Great  Eastern  could 
not  describe  its  trains  as  fast,  the  line  has  earned  a 
very  good  reputation  for  punctuality.  There  is  no 
virtue  in  railway  management  which  makes  a  better 
impression  on  the  travelling  public,  or  gives  the  railway 
practising  it  a  better  name.  Punctuality  is  one  of  the 
few  things  about  which  there  is  doubt.  A  passenger 
knows  beforehand  how  much  his  ticket  will  cost  and 
what  sort  of  accommodation  he  will  get,  and  does  not 
trouble  himself  with  anxious  thought  on  these  matters. 
But  the  fear  of  unpunctuality,  of  missing  a  connection, 
or  arriving  late  for  an  appointment,  is  a  constant 
source  of  annoyance,  and  a  railway  which  relieves  its 
customers  of  these  apprehensions  does  perhaps  more 
to  win  their  approbation  than  could  be  done  in  any 
other  way.  Punctuality,  too,  has  very  important 
effects,  which  directly  benefit  the  railway  company, 
altogether  apart  from  the  sentiments  of  the  passengers. 
Most  important  railway  lines  are  more  or  less  crowded 
with  traffic,  and  very  elaborate  schemes  have  to  be 
drawn  up  for  getting  the  trains  along.  Each  train  has 
just  its  few  allotted  minutes  for  travelling  over  each 
section  of  the  line,  and,  when  they  have  elapsed,  it 
is  the  next  train's  turn,  and  so  on.  If  the  proper 
train  is  not  there  at  the  proper  time  the  scheme  of 
working  can  no  longer  be  carried  out,  and  a  greater 
or  less  degree  of  confusion  results.  It  wants  com- 
paratively little  unpunctuality  to  bring  about  a 

u 


290        KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BEITAIN 

considerable  degree  of  confusion,  for,  if  only  one  train  is 
out  of  its  place  its  lateness  may  affect  the  working  of 
scores  of  others — those  following  it,  those  crossing  its 
path,  those  connecting  with  it,  and  those  whose  running 
is  affected  by  the  lateness  of  those  delayed  by  it.  And 
unpunctuality  is  not  economical.  So  small  a  thing 
as  an  extra  signal  stop  is  an  appreciable  expense- 
so  much  energy  is  dissipated  and  has  to  be  generated 
afresh  by  the  engine,  and  there  is  so  much  extra  wear 
and  tear  of  the  brake  blocks  and  tires.  Then,  if  there 
is  unpunctuality,  the  work  of  the  whole  staff  of  the 
railway,  which  has  to  deal  with  the  trains  affected,  is 
delayed,  and  has  to  be  done  at  a  time  different  from 
that  at  which  it  ought  to  be  done,  and  perhaps  the 
additional  cost  is  incurred  of  paying  men  for  working 
overtime. 

Punctuality  has  so  much  to  recommend  it  that  it 
is  strange  that  greater  pains  are  not  taken  to  ensure 
that  the  greatest  possible  measure  of  it  shall  be  achieved. 
Perfect  punctuality  is  no  doubt  unattainable,  but  it 
is  quite  possible  to  attain  a  very  high  degree  of  punctu- 
ality ;  and  the  means  of  attaining  it  are,  firstly,  so  far 
as  possible  to  eliminate  delays,  and,  secondly,  when 
delays  occur,  to  make  up  the  time  lost.  It  may  be 
assumed  that  the  elimination  of  delays  already  receives 
all  due  attention,  but  the  question  of  making  up  lost 
time  is  not  so  satisfactorily  taken  in  hand.  The 
question  has  unfortunately  got  mixed  up  with  that 
of  excessive  speed,  from  which  it  is  really  quite  distinct. 
The  facts  as  regards  excessive  speed  are  these  :  there 
are  certain  places,  particularly  curves,  where  it  is 
dangerous  for  any  train  to  run  at  more  than  a  certain 
speed,  lest  it  should  come  off  the  rails,  there  are  some 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    291 

classes  of  engines  which,  owing  to  their  construction, 
are  unsuited  for  running  at  more  than  a  certain  speed, 
either  at  all,  or  in  places  where  other  classes  of  engine 
might  run  at  any  speed,  and  there  are  certain  lines, 
which  are  not  of  sufficiently  solid  construction  safely 
to  carry  trains  running  at  more  than  a  certain  speed. 
But  the  safe  limits  can  in  every  case  be  accurately 
determined,  and,  if  these  limits  are  respected,  such  a 
thing  as  excessive  speed  does  not  exist.  Suitably 
constructed  rolling  stock,  running  over  a  strongly 
built  line,  without  sharp  curves,  is  in  no  danger  of 
leaving  the  rails  at  any  speed  which  can  be  attained, 
and,  subject  to  a  strict  observance  of  the  limits  indi- 
cated above  (which  in  point  of  fact  are  seldom  great 
enough  or  numerous  enough  to  constitute  a  serious 
hindrance)  trains  could  exceed  their  booked  speed 
to  any  extent  without  any  danger  whatever.  It  may, 
of  course,  happen  that  the  engine  is  not  powerful 
enough  to  put  forth  the  extra  effort  required  for  making 
up  time,  in  which  case  nothing  can  be  done,  but  when- 
ever she  is  powerful  enough  there  is  every  reason  for 
making  up  as  much  lost  time  as  possible,  so  as  to  reduce 
as  far  as  possible  the  annoyance  caused  to  the  pas- 
sengers and  the  subsequent  disorganisation  of  the 
traffic.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that,  although 
accidents  on  British  railways  are,  in  any  case,  very 
rare,  they  are  distinctly  less  likely  to  happen  when  the 
traffic  is  being  worked  as  nearly  as  possible  in  accord- 
ance with  the  time-table,  so  that  the  making  up  of 
lost  time  tends  towards  greater  safety. 

At  one  time  the  Great  Eastern  had  a  good  many 
engines  which  burned  liquid  fuel  on  a  system  intro- 
duced by  the  company.  The  apparatus  worked  with 


292        RAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

great  success,  but  the  enormous  increase  in  the  demand 
for  oil  which  has  taken  place  of  late  years  has  raised 
the  price  in  Great  Britain  to  such  a  point  that  oil  is 
now  too  expensive  to  be  used  in  locomotives.* 

One  of  the  objections  to  the  introduction  of  very 
big  engines  is  that  when  the  grate  reaches  a  certain 
size  it  is  more  than  one  man  can  do  to  supply  it  with 
coal  when  the  engine  is  working  hard.  In  this  country 
grates  have  hardly  yet  reached  these  dimensions.  The 
comparatively  good  coal  which  British  engines  burn 
often  enables  them  to  do  the  same  amount  of  work 
as  engines  in  other  countries  do  which  have  grates  50 
or  100  per  cent  bigger.  But  the  question  of  reducing 
the  work  demanded  of  the  fireman  is  bound  to  come 
more  and  more  to  the  front.  If  oil  were  not  so  expen- 
sive, the  problem  could  be  solved  completely  and 
easily  by  the  use  of  liquid  fuel,  but  unfortunately  this 
is  not  now  possible,  except  in  those  parts  of  the 
world  where  oil  is  produced  in  bulk.  No  greater 
contrast  could  be  imagined  than  there  is  between  the 
continuous  and  exacting  work  of  a  fireman  on  a  big 
coal-burning  engine  and  the  almost  complete  leisure 
of  the  same  functionary  on  an  oil  burner.  The  former, 
in  extreme  cases,  has  hardly  time  to  mop  the  perspi- 
ration from  his  brow  after  throwing  one  charge  upon 
the  fire  before  it  is  time  for  him  to  begin  putting  on 
the  next,  while  the  latter  regulates  the  production  of 
steam  from  nothing  at  all  to  the  greatest  effort  of 
which  the  largest  engine  is  capable  by  turning  a  handle 
which  is  conveniently  arranged  in  front  of  him  as  he 
sits  at  his  ease.  The  problem  of  automatically  supplying 

*  The  Great  Eastern  may  still  have  a  few  oil-burning  engines,  but 
has  not  many,  I  imagine, 


RAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    293 

the  furnace  with  solid  fuel  is,  of  course,  one  of  much 
greater  difficulty.  Indeed,  it  seems  doubtful  whether 
it  will  ever  be  possible  altogether  to  dispense  with  the 
fireman's  shovel.  In  the  first  installations,  at  least, 
it  is  more  probable  that  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
fuel  will  be  introduced  automatically  into  the  fire-box, 
and  the  fireman  left  to  complete  the  supply  in  the 
ordinary  way.  An  apparatus  working  on  these  lines 
has  already  been  tried.  Continuous  streams  of  little 
briquettes  about  the  size  of  lawn  tennis  balls  are  blown 
by  steam  jets  into  the  fire-box,  through  pipes  of  suitable 
size,  which  enter  the  fire-box  on  either  side  of  the  door. 
The  matter  is,  however,  for  the  present  very  much  at 
an  experimental  stage. 

One  of  the  simplifications  in  locomotive  design,  to 
which  most  British  engineers  cling,  is  the  blast-pipe 
with  a  fixed  orifice.  To  make  an  engine  run  freely  the 
orifice  of  the  blast-pipe  must  be  as  large  as  possible, 
so  as  to  give  the  exhaust  steam  the  easiest  possible 
exit  from  the  cylinders.  Sometimes  the  engine  can 
make  steam  with  a  larger  blast-pipe  orifice  than  is  at 
other  times  necessary ;  but,  unless  the  blast-pipe  has 
an  orifice  whose  section  can  be  varied  at  will,  i£  is 
necessary  to  have  the  orifice  small  enough  to  make 
steam  under  all  conditions.  British  engines,  with  fixed 
blast-pipe  orifices,  must,  therefore,  frequently  suffer 
from  a  slightly  higher  back-pressure  in  the  cylinders 
than  is  absolutely  necessary.  Many  foreign  engines 
are  made  with  blast-pipes,  the  diameter  of  whose 
orifices  can  be  varied  at  will  by  the  driver.  Of  course, 
there  is  always  the  danger  that  the  driver  will  avail 
himself  in  the  wrong  way  of  his  power  to  vary  the  size 
of  the  orifice,  and  will  keep  it  unnecessarily  small,  in 


294        EAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

which  case  the  variable  blast-pipe  will  prove  an  actual 
drawback.  This  appears  to  be  a  chief  reason  why 
variable  blast-pipes  are  so  little  used  in  England. 
Some  British  engines,  however,  particularly  on  the 
Great  Eastern,  have  blast-pipes  with  a  rather  large 
orifice,  to  which,  by  the  movement  of  a  lever,  a  cap 
with  a  smaller  orifice  can  be  fitted. 

It  is  interesting  to  look  towards  the  future  and 
endeavour  to  decide  whether  railways  are  likely  to 
be  an  enduring  phenomenon  or  whether,  when  they 
have  served  their  turn,  they  are  likely  to  be  displaced 
by  some  more  perfect  method  of  transport.  The 
essential  advantage  of  a  railway  is  that  it  provides  a 
means  whereby  vehicles  can  be  moved  with  an  extremely 
small  expenditure  of  power  in  comparison  with  their 
weight,  and  this  is  due  to  the  hard  and  smooth  surface 
offered  by  the  rails.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  means 
will  ever  be  discovered  which  will  present  any  advantage 
worth  mentioning  over  a  railway  in  this  respect.  In 
addition  to  the  advantage  of  the  very  small  amount 
of  power  required  to  move  the  vehicles,  a  railway  offers 
the  further  very  great  advantage  of  complete  control 
over  the  direction  of  movement — the  vehicles  cannot 
deviate  from  the  line  of  the  rails  and  no  steering  is 
necessary.  It  may  be  assumed,  therefore,  that  no 
system  of  transport  can  ever  be  much  cheaper  to  work 
than  is  a  railway.  The  only  kind  of  system  which 
could  possibly  compete  with  railways  would  be  one 
which  was  much  cheaper  in  first  cost. 

There  are  three  possible  media  by  which  transport 
can  be  carried  on — land,  water,  and  air.  While  it  is 
perhaps  not  impossible  that  some  form  of  single  rail 
arrangement,  worked  by  rolling  stock  swung  below  it, 


KAILWAYS  TO  THE  SOUTH  AND  EAST    295 

or  kept  upright  above  it  by  means  of  gyroscopes, 
might  be  much  cheaper  to  build  than  an  ordinary 
railway,  especially  in  mountainous  regions,  it  is  most 
improbable  that  any  such  arrangement  would  offer 
advantages  which  would  make  it  worth  while  adopting 
it  generally  in  any  country  already  well  supplied  with 
railways  of  the  ordinary  kind  ;  and,  even  so,  it  would 
merely  be  replacing  one  kind  of  railway  by  another. 
Some  kind  of  automatic  guiding  seems  absolutely 
essential  for  land  transport  carried  on  in  bulk  ;  as  this 
is  very  well  supplied  by  rails,  it  seems  hardly  possible 
that  rails  will  ever  be  dispensed  with  ;  and,  in  view  of 
the  very  great  efficiency  and  safety  of  the  ordinary 
system,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  this  system  could  ever 
be  exchanged  for  another. 

Water  transport  possesses,  of  course,  under  favour- 
able circumstances,  advantages  with  which  railways 
cannot  compete.  Where  nature  supplies  the  water- 
way, the  first  cost  involves  nothing  but  the  provision 
of  boats  and  landing-stages.  Water  transport  is,  and 
was  from  remotest  antiquity  recognised  to  be,  the  most 
natural  means  of  transport,  and  this  gave  it  a  long 
start  of  railways  ;  and  the  construction  of  canals,  and 
the  deepening  of  the  courses  of  rivers,  the  natural 
developments  of  water  transport,  were  available  for 
facilitating  such  transport  long  before  railways  came 
into  existence.  In  spite  of  this,  railways  had  in  most 
cases  no  difficulty  in  catching  up  and  out-distancing 
the  inland  waterways  as  avenues  of  traffic,  and  even 
the  Koyal  Commission  on  canals,  who  desire  to  see  a 
development  of  the  British  canal  system,  do  not  venture 
to  suggest  that  this  could  be  carried  out  without  a 
State  guarantee.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  hardly 


296        KAILWAYS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN 

looks  as  though  railways  were  in  much  danger  of  being 
permanently  superseded  by  any  method  of  inland 
transport  by  water. 

There  remains  the  possibility  of  the  development 
of  air  transport.  As  with  sea  transport,  the  first  cost 
would  be  confined  to  providing  the  vehicles  and 
landing-stages,  and  great  possibilities  of  economy 
present  themselves.  But  the  many  obvious  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  carrying  on  a  large,  regular,  and 
frequent  traffic  by  way  of  the  air  need  not  be  enlarged 
upon,  and  the  possibility  of  effective  competition  with 
railways  by  means  of  air  vessels  is  probably  as  remote 
now  as  it  was  before  the  remarkable  feats  of  the  airmen 
had  begun  to  take  place,  to  which  we  are  getting 
accustomed. 

So  far,  then,  as  it  is  possible  to  look  ahead,  there 
seems  little  likelihood  of  railways  losing  their  im- 
portance. As  time  goes  by  no  doubt  more  and  more 
perfect  methods  of  moving  and  controlling  trains  will 
be  evolved,  but  as  far  as  the  actual  railways  are  con- 
cerned, there  is  a  good  prospect  of  their  usefulness 
continuing  for  centuries. 


INDEX 


ABERDEEN,  2,  4,  167 

— ,  race  to,  113,  114,  121,  126, 

144 

Acceleration,  expense  of,  128-132 
Accelerations,  116,  123,  126,  288 
,  unwillingness  of  railways  to 

introduce,  132 
Accidents,  48,  51 

Accounts,  railway  companies',  281 
Activities  of  railways,  miscellaneous, 

91 

Addressing  of  goods,  83 
Agreement   for   limiting    speed    of 

Scottish  trains,  116,  123 
Agreements,   railway,   8,    13,    127, 
153 

,  working,  12 

Alps,  239 

Alliances,  railway,  1,  267 

Amalgamation  of  Kentish  lines,  267 

America,  50 

Americans,  46 

Amiens,  135 

Anomalies,  95 

Anglo-Scottish  trains,  deterioration 

of  speeds  of,  123 
Arbitration,  29 
Atlantic  City,  246 
Axle-loads,  130,  131 
Axles,  crank,  222 
Ayrshire,  156 

BALANCE  weights,  38 
Balancing  of  engines,  42,  179,  180, 
223 

carriage  wheels,  54 

Balcombe  tunnel,  244,  263 
Ballachulish,  6 
Ballast,  191 


Bath,  60,  205 

Beattock  bank,  112,  178 

Bedford,  66,  68 

Belfast  &  N.  C.  Ry.,  58 

Berlin,  151,  184,  276 

Berlin-Zossen  Railway,  130 

Birmingham,  60,  141,  155,  170 

Blast-pipe,  variable,  137,  293 

Block  system,  227-229 

Board  of  Trade,  17,  29,  80 

Bogies,  224,  240 

Boiler  shop,  220 

Boilers,  40,  43 

Bolster,  225 

Bournemouth,  57,  60 

Box  tunnel,  172 

Bradford,  67 

Brake,  automatic  vacuum,  95,  238 

,  either  side,  80 

— ,  Westinghouse,  95,  96,  238 
Brakes,  80.  227,  238 
Brighton,  60,  245 
Bristol,  57,  60,  151,  170,  183 
Broad  Street,  154 
Buchanan  Street  station,  161,  167 

CAFHERS,  138 

Calais,  135,  270,  275 

Callander  and  Oban  line,  5 

Canals,  108,  295 

Capacity  of  railway  lines,  208 

Capital,  railway,  277-281 

Cardiff,  60 

Carriage  doors,  52,  53 

roofs,  elliptical,  49 

windows,  53 

Carriages,  45-53 

,  compartment-,  46 

,  corridor,  47,  48,  52 


298 


INDEX 


Carriages,  lighting  of,  54 

— ,  sleeping,  46,  48,  49 

,  wood  or  steel,  51,  52 

— • — ,  third-class  sleeping,  50 
Carlisle,  37,  57,  112,  121,  122,  133, 

144 
Carlisle-Stirling  runs  on  Caledonian, 

117 

Cars,  dining,  46,  48 
Carstairs,  166 

Central  Conciliation  Board,  29,  33 
Chairs,  186,  187,  193 
Channel  tunnel,  272 
Charing  Cross,  accident  to  roof,  268 
Cheshire  lines,  71 
Chelmsford,  119 
Class,  abolition  of  second,  101 

,  first,  100,  101,  286 

,  second,  100 

,  third,  101,  286 

Clapham  Junction,  207 

Clayton  tunnel,  263 

Cleaners,  235 

Clearing  house,  railway,  107,  153 

Clerestories,  48 

Clyde,  160,  161 

Coast  line  of  Great  Britain,  108 

Colchester,  119 

Compensation,  17 

Competition,  1,  7-9,  13,  14,  16-20, 

142,  265 

—  between  manufacturers,  97 

tramway,  249 

Complications  in  locomotive  design, 

146 
Coal  traffic,  157-160 

,  Kent,  59 

washing,  160 

Conciliation,  29,  33 

Board,  29 

Conciliation  scheme  of  1907.  .32,  34 
Concourse,  163 
Connecting  rod,  150 
Consignments,  smallness  of,  203 
Consignments,  large  or  small,  106 
Continental  service  of  Great  Eastern, 

288 

Control  system,  train,  84 
Co-operation,  70 
Corrugations  in  rails,  198 


Couplers,  automatic,  79 
Coupling  rods,  224 
Creeping  of  rails,  197 
Creosoting,  192,  196 
Crewe,  121,  122,  133,  155 
Cromer,  57,  119,  285 
Crossings,  rail,  199,  209 
Croydon,  243 

— ,  East,  243 
Crystal  Palace,  250 
Curves,  118,  119,  120,  190,  210 
Cylinders,  41 

,  inside,  39 

,  outside,  39,  41 

DARLINGTON,  60 

Dartmoor,  213,  214 

Demurrage,  18 

Derby,  57,  60,  63,  77 

,  head  train  control  office  at, 

85 

Devizes,  60 
Dies,  226 
Diesel  engine,  254 
Directors,  10-12 
Discipline,  31,  32,  33 
Discontent,  28,  33 
Disfranchisement,  23 
Ditton  Junction,  accident  at,  52 
Dividends,  36 
Dock  labourers,  217 
Docks,  91,  157 
Dover,  60,  269,  271 

— ,  new  station  for,  274 
Dross,  160 
Dunalastairs,  114,  123 


EAST  coast,  2,  8,  50,  60,  121,  122, 

144,  169 

Eastleigh  works,  219-227 
Eastbourne,  248 
Edinburgh,  2,  3,  4,  8,  60,  94,  133 

,  race  to,  112,  126 

Electric  lighting,  55 

traction,     7,     74,     93,     154, 

249-255 

traction,  high  speed,  130 

Emergency  key,  229 
Engine  drivers,  235 


INDEX 


299 


Engines — 

American  for  Midland,  91 
-110 

Brighton,  40,  241,  256-265 

Caledonian,  111-118 

compound,  61,  62,  64,  146,  148 

efficiency  of ,  63,  257 

eight- wheel,  39 

four-coupled,  39,  115 

four-cylinder,  42,  131,  147,  151, 
1791 

Goods,  90,  109 

Great  Central,  69,  72 

Great  Northern,  37, 39, 40,  41,  111 

Great  Western,  111,  135,  176-181 

Lancashire  and  Yorkshire,  72 

Midland,  61-66,  110 

Nord,  134-141,  180,  270 

North  British,  4,  41 

North  Eastern,  41,  42 

Paris- Orleans,  180 

shunting,  88,  90 

Single,  37,  38,  39,  111-113,  176 

standard  express,  39 

tank,  240,  261-262 

ten-wheel,  40 

three-cylinder,  42,  61 
Euston-Glasgow  trains,  122 
Exeter,  60,  170,  172,  183 
Eyesight  tests,  236 

FACILITIES,  difficulty  in  curtailing, 

153 
Pares,  14,  15,  16,  35,  98 

,  season  ticket,  99 

,  through,  107 

,  workmen's,  99 

Feed- water  heating,  222,  258 
Fenchurch  Street,  58 
Ferries,  train,  273,  276 
Fife,  156 

Finance,  railway,  277-281 
Financial  results,  34 
Fire,  danger  of,  51,  56 
Fire-boxes,  40,  41,  44,  73,  74,  149, 
221 

,  Belpaire,  41,  62,  64,  73 

,  cylindrical,  73 

,  water  tube,  74 

Firemen,  235 


Fishguard,  172 

Fishplates,  187 

Floods  in  East  Anglia,  287 

Folkestone,  269 

Ford  Junction,  243 

Forfar,  115,  122 

Fort  William,  6 

Forth  bridge,  2,  4,  67 

Future  of  railways,  294 

France,  15,  16,  26,  59,  108 

,  planning  of  railways  in,  59 

French  trains,  satisfactory,  269 
Fuel,  44,  181,  291-293 
-  liquid,  291 

GANNES,  135 

Gas,  51,  54,  55 

Gauge,  broad,  171,  173, 176 

,  loading,  48,  175 

— ,  standard,  173 
Germans,  217 
Germany,  15,  16,  26,  108 
Glasgow,  4,  58,  60,  67,  94 

Central  station,  161-166 


Goods,  division  into  classes,  103 

traffic,  7,  16 

trains,  loading  of,  76,  204 

Goring,  water  softening  at,  181 

Government,  12 

Gradients  of  North  Western  Rail- 
way, 155 

Grates,  44,  135 

Gravity,  centre  of,  in  locomotives, 
173 

Great  Britain,  conditions  in,  15 

Great  Central  Railway,  London 
extension,  18,  68 

,  alternative  route  to  London, 

69 

,  rolling  stock,  69 

Great  Western  Railway,  improve- 
ments in,  177 

Grimsby,  70 

HAMBURG,  151,  184 

Hammering  action  of  wheels,  39 

Hanover,  184 

Harbours,  91 

Harland  and  Wolff,  216 

Harriman,  Mr.,  176 


300 


INDEX 


Hastings,  248 

Hawes  Junction,  accident  near,  52 

Havre,  steamboat  service  to,  218 

Hayes,  195 

Heating  of  carriages,  225 

Hemerdon  bank,  178 

Herne  Hill,  266 

Heysham,  57,  92 

Holyhead,  60 

Honiton  tunnel,  212 

Horses,  dray,  84 

Horwich  works,  72 

Hotels,  91,  93,  94 

Hump,  88 

IMAGINATION,  hold  of  steam  locomo- 
tion upon,  254 

Immingham,  70 

Indicator,  train,  163 

Influence,  undue,  33 

Injectors,  258 

Intermediate  stations,  service  of, 
152 

Interchangeability  of  parts,  95,  256 

Invergarry  and  Fort  Augustus 
Railway,  6 

Ipswich,  119 

Iron,  cast,  224 

Ireland,  services  to,  92 

Italy,  27 

JUNCTIONS,  flying,  207?  209 

KENT  coal,  272 

King  Edward  bridge,  7 

Memorial.  269 

Kinnaber  Junction,  3 


LEEDS,  8,  60,  81 
Leeds-St.  Pancras  express,  64 
Levers,  equalising,  179 
Lewes,  248 

Liverpool,  57,  71,  92,  151,  155 
Liverpool  Street,  285,  288 
Local  taxation,  282 
Long  runs,  47,  143,  182-184 
London  Bridge,  243 
London,    Tilbury     and     Southend 
Railway,  58 


Lost  time,  making  up  of,  125,  290 
Lubrication,  47 
Luggage,  101 

MACHINE  tools,  220 

Main  line,  Caledonian,  156 

-,  Great  Eastern,  119 

— ,  Great  Western,  119,  212 

,  Midland,  66 

,     possible     electrification     of 

Brighton,  254 

"  Majestic,"  215 

Mallaig,  6 

Management,  railway,  10 

Managers,  railway,  128 

Manchester,  57,  69,  71,  127,  151, 
155 

Manchester,  Sheffield  and  Lincoln- 
shire Railway,  68,  69 

Manufacture  of  rolling  stock,  94 

Manufacturers,  private  firms  of,  94, 
97 

,  opposition  to  railway  amal- 
gamation of,  98 

Manufacturing,  91 

Marshalling,  79,  88-90 

Masboro',  64 

Mediocrity    of    speeds   of    Scottish 
trains,  123 

Meetings,  general,  100 

Meldon  viaduct,  213 

Midi,  Chemin  de  fer  du,  124 

Midland  route  to  Scotland,  50,  67, 
169 

Mineral  traffic,  heavy,  76 

Misery  of  third-class  passengers  by 
night,  51 

Morecambe  Bay,  93 

Motors,  road,  7 

,  rail,  184 

NATIONALISATION,  21,  22,  24,  25,  27 
Newcastle,  7,  37 
Newhaven-Dieppe  route,  276 
Newton  Abbot,  213 
Nine  Elms,  201,  219 

,  goods  station,  202-207 

Nord,  Chemin  de  fer  du,  74,  124 

"  Normannia,"  218 

N.E.  Railway,  monopoly  of,  37 


INDEX 


301 


North  London  Railway,  142 
Norwich,  60,  119,  287 
Nottingham,  61 
Numbering  of  Midland  engines,  88 

OFFICERS,  railway,  12,  24 

Officials,  railway,  33 

"  Olympic,"  215 

Ore,  157 

Ouest,  Chemin  de  fer  de  P,  27 

Overtime,  28 

Overturning  of  engines,  211 

Ownership,  State,  20,  21,  22,  25 

,  private,  20 

PADDINGTON,  172 

Paris,  135,  275 

Paris- Orleans,  Chemin  de  fer,  124 

Passenger  traffic,  75 

Patcham  tunnel,  263 

Pennsylvania  Railway,  246 

Pennines,  60,  69,  71 

Pensions,  207 

Permanent  way,  39,  186-199 

— ,  wear  and  tear  of,   129,   130, 

131 

Perth,  4,  121,  122,  144,  168 
Philadelphia,  246 

—  and  Reading  Railway,  246 
Piloting,  43,  149 

Plymouth,  172,  183,  206,  212,  213 
Policy,   railway,   31,    32,   33,    116, 

125,  152 

Political  pressure,  25 
Portsmouth,  247 

Power,  measure  of  engine,  44,  45 
Precautions  against  accidents,  125 
Preference,  undue,  17,  78 
Preston,  accident  at,  121 
Prices,  rise  in,  28,  35 
Princetown  Railway,  213 
Privacy  in  railway  carriages,  46 
Private  owners,  77,  78 
Profits,  75 
Promotion,  31 
Prussian  State  Railways,  17,  25,  26, 

151,  183,  277 
— • — ,  accident  on,  53 
Public,  19,  23,  126,  142 
,  Interests  of  the,  12,  13 


Public  opinion,  23 
Pullman  cars,  45 
Punctuality,  289-291 

QUANTITY,  reduction  on  a,  99,  100, 

106 

Quarry  tunnel,  264 
Queen  Street  station,  Glasgow,  166 
Queenboro',  276 

RAIL  circuits,  230,  235 
Rails,  superelevation  of,  119 
Rail- joints,  130,  186 
Rails,  186-191 

,  deformation  of,  198 

— ,  manufacture  of,  98 

,  standard  sections,  191 

Railway  servants,  19,  22,  23,  25-28, 

30,  33,  35 

,  conditions  of,  34,  104 

,  grievances  of,  31,  32 

Railways  Bill  (1913),  103 
Rates,  14,  16,  35,  98,  102-107 

,   difficulties    of    experimental 

reduction  of,  104 

,  fixed  with  regard  to  "  what 

the  traffic  can  bear,"  104 

— ,  on  farm  produce,  106,  107 

— ,  on  foreign  produce,  106,  107 

payable  to  local  authorities, 

35,  282 
,  sliding  scale  of,  104 

— ,  through,  107 
Reading,  172 
Rebates,  secret,  16 
Reforms,  social,  22 
Regulation  of  railways,  14 
Reporting  boxes,  85 
Rocky  Mountains,  239 
Rolling  stock,  Great  Western,  181 
Royal  Commission  of  1911 .  .32,  34 
on  Canals,  108,  295 

SAFETY,  considerations  of,  119 
Salaries,  24 
Salisbury,  207 

,  accident  at,  210 

Salisbury-Exeter    run     on     South 

Western,  117,  211 
Scottish  trains,  116,  123 


302 


INDEX 


Season  ticket  holders,  100 

Self-interest,  10 

Sentiment,  255 

Severn  tunnel,  171 

Shap,  155 

Shareholders,  10,  11,  19,  23,  34,  35 

,  Association  of  Scottish  Rail- 
way, 11 

Sheffield,  60,  61,  69 

Short-cuts,  Great  Western,  171 

Shunting,  79,  80,  89 
—  poles,  79 

Shunts,  89 

Siding  rent,  18 

Signals,  227-235 

,  at  Glasgow  Central,  164 

,  audible,  233,  234 

,  cab,  233,  234 

,  electric,  230 

,  electro -pneumatic,  165 

,  flashlight,  232 

,  fog,  233 

,  low  pressure  pneumatic,  231 

,  pneumatic,  230 

Single  line  working,  236-238 

Sleepers,  186,  192-197 

Sleeping  Car  Co.,  International,  49 

Slide  bars,  224 

Slip  carriages,  184 

Smoothness  of  running,  38,  48,  129, 
264 

South  Devon  line,  178 

South  Western  carriages,  colours  of, 
227 

Southampton,  92 

docks,  214-219 

"  Southern  Belle,"  241,  262 

South  Eastern  trains,  slowness  of, 
269,  274 

Speed,  appreciation  by  railways  of 
value  of,  126,  127 

,  excessive,  290 

limits,   necessity  for  respect- 
ing, 120,  125,  291 

of  goods  trains,  109 

of  travel,  14,   16,   118,    120, 

124 

performances  of  Great  Central, 

117 

,  possibilities  of,  132-143 


Speed,     unique     performances     of 

Caledonian  in  1896..  117 
Speeds,  recent  dearth  of  remarkable, 

117 
of  British  trains,  124 

—  of  French  trains,  124 

,  remarkable,  121,  122 

Standardisation,  95,  96 

Starting  of  electric  vehicles,  rapid, 

250 

State  control,  13 
State  railways,  26 
Statistics,  7 
Steam,  expansion  of,  146 

passages,  design  of,  37 

pressure  in  boilers,  177 

Steamers,  Cross-Channel,  271 ,  275 

St.  Enoch  station,  Glasgow,  166 

Steamers,  91,  92 

Steel  for  rails,  188 

Stirling,  122,  166 

Stranraer,  57 

Strike,  coal,  152 

,  French  railway,  27 

of  August,  1911.. 30,  32,34, 

286 

Strikes,  28,  29,  37,  287 
Stroudley,  Mr.  W.,  255-257,  261 
Sud  express,  accident  to,  124 
Superheaters,  61,  62,  63,  96,  179, 

221,  258-260 

,  Schmidt,  63,  135,  179 

Supplements,  sleeping  carriage,  49 
Survilliers,  135 
Sutton,  243 
Swindon,  171 

TARPAULINS,  204 
Tay  bridge,  4 
Taunton,  172 
Telescoping,  48,  51 
Templecombe,  210 
Tenders,  240 
Tickets,  excursion,  100 

,  privilege,  207 

,  return,  100 

,  week  end,  100 

Toton,  coal  traffic  at,  88 
Trade  Unions,  26,  30,  31,  32 
Union  leaders,  25,  31 


INDEX 


303 


Trade  Unions,  recognition  of,  29, 

32,33 
Traders,  16 

Trading,  British  conditions  of,  108 
Train  service,  reduction  in,  152 
Train-resistance,  199 
Trains,  heavy  goods,  90 

,  suburban,  53,  283 

Transfer  stations,  goods,  81 

— ,  Leeds,  81 
Trent,  61 
Trials  of  locomotives,  comparative, 

150 

Tube,  Central  London,  285 
Tube-plate,  73 
Tunnels,  defective  ventilation  in,  251 

UNDERSTANDINGS  between  railways, 

14,  18,  36,  84 
United  States,  conditions  of  travel 

in,  46 
Unstead}^  running,  130 

VACUUM  cleaner,  54 
Valve  gear,  146,  147 

,  Joy's,  150 

— ,  Walschaerts'  96,  224 
Valves,  piston,  224,  260 
,  slide,  260 

,  retaining,  239 

Vestibules,  47 
Victoria,  243-245,  288 

WAGES,  25,  34,  104 

,  purchasing  power  of,  28,  36 


Wagon  loads,  average,  204 
Wagons,  4- wheel,  75-78 

— ,  8-wheel,  77 

,  big,  76 

,  mineral,  77 

,  private  owners',  77,  78 

,  steel,  77 

Wales,  South,  170-172 
Warehouses,  17,  82,  91 
Water,  drainage  of,  193 

power,  252 

softening,  145,  181 

transport,  295 

troughs,  7,  47,   65,  143-145, 

286 

Waterloo,  201,  269 
Watford,  154 
Wath,  70 
Waverley  station,  4 

—  route,  67, 
Westbury,  183,  212 
West  coast,    2,   49,   67,  112,  121, 

122,  144,  169 

West  Highland  Railway,  5,  6 
Wheels,  fixing  on  to  axles  of,  53 
Wigan,  122 

Wind,  hindrance  caused  by,  65 
Wireless  telegraphy  at  Heysham,  93 
Wood,  for  sleepers,  193 

— ,  Australian  hard,  197 
Workshops,  railway,  91,  97 

YARMOUTH,  57,  60,  285 
Yeovil  Junction,  211 
York,  2,  8,  37 


THE   END 


FEINTED  BY  WILLIAM   CLOWES  AND   SONS,  LIMITED,  LONDON  AND  BECCLES 


With  Illustrations.      Demy  8vo,  3s.  6d.  net. 

French  Railways. 

By  LORD   MONKSWELL,   D.L. 

RAILWAY  GAZETTE.— "A  more  concise  description  of  the 
arrangement  and  present-day  working  of  the  French  railways  than  we  have  yet 
read.  Lord  Monks  well  shows  that  he  has  a  surprisingly  all-round  know- 
ledge of  railway  matters — historical,  financial,  mechanical,  and  operating." 

RAILWAY  ENGINEER.— "The  book  is  written  in  an  engaging 
style,  and  the  admirable  way  in  which  an  extensive  field  is  covered  reflects 
great  credit  on  the  author." 

RAILWAY  NEWS.—"  An  instructive  book  giving  a  sketch  of  the 
origin  and  development  of  railway  enterprise  in  France.  The  book,  which 
is  not  too  technical,  makes  excellent  reading." 

PRACTICAL  ENGINEER.— "  Lord  Monkswell  has  had  special 
facilities  during  a  series  of  years  to  collect  information  about  the  railways  of 
France,  and  he  now  gives  in  popular  language  all  that  is  most  interesting 
concerning  their  development  and  working.  Altogether  the  volume  con- 
stitutes a  treatise  of  considerable  literary  merit  and  technical  value." 

GLOBE. — "This  handy  little  volume  will  be  of  considerable  value  to 
railway  engineers  who  follow  the  work  of  their  profession  in  other  countries." 

SCOTSMAN. — "Lord  Monkswell's  succinct,  well  illustrated,  and 
singularly  well-informed  essay  will  interest  and  instruct  any  one  who  wishes 
to  understand  the  organisation  of  a  big  French  line." 

GLASGOW  HERALD.— "The  book  has  much  interesting  matter 
both  for  the  traveller  and  the  expert,  and  it  is  illustrated  from  several 
excellent  photographs." 

ABERDEEN  DAILY  JOURNAL.— "  This  well-informed  and 
readable  volume  will  prove  both  entertaining  and  instructive." 

OXFORD  CHRONICLE.— "Written  from  the  engineer's  stand- 
point  .  .  .  but  a  great  deal  of  careful  information  has  been  got  together  about 
methods  of  management,  international  communications,  equipment,  services, 
fares  and  rates." 

NORTHERN  WHIG.— "A  highly  informative  and  interesting 
brochure  on  French  railways,  and  very  clearly  based  on  close  observation  and 
first-hand  knowledge." 

WESTERN  MORNING  NEWS.— "A  book  which  will  be  both  of 
value  and  interest  alike  to  professional  railway  men  and  to  that  numerous 
class  of  amateur  railway  students  which  exists  in  this  country." 

ENGLISH  REVIEW.—"  A  work  of  value  to  engineers  interested  in 
railway  machinery  and  engines,  and  at  the  same  time  sufficiently  free  of 
abstruse  technicalities  to  assure  the  interest  of  the  general  reader." 

INVESTOR'S  CHRONICLE.— "The  subject  should  prove  inter- 
esting  to  those  who  wish  to  know  how  railways  progress  under  State  control. 

London:    SMITH,  ELDER  &  CO.,    15  Waterloo  Place,  S.W. 


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